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***
Another three days passed.
Sandy saw no one while they passed. She was used to being inside all the time, but she wasn’t used to being alone. Her grandmother had always been there, at the very most a household away. Sometimes, they would just sit together in a room, silent but still together. Being locked away, completely alone, was a weight on the psyche that she did her best to alleviate by lingering in the reading room or trying – and failing – to use the alien gym equipment.
She was also still really hungry! The first few days with less food than she needed hadn’t been that bad, but that, too, was starting to weigh on her. With no way to get out and no way to communicate, she had no way of asking them for more food. So, she just had to go hungry.
Loneliness and hunger were heavy burdens, and she was getting close to the edge of her ability to tolerate such things. She wasn’t a skinny person, but she wouldn’t call herself big either. She had a healthy amount of fat lingering in her softer areas, but that had never bothered her. However, if things kept up, she might lose even that.
Then, one day, without warning, the doors to her bedroom – Rane’s bedroom, apparently – opened and Green walked in. He threw something on the ground.
“Get dressed. Hurry up.”
That was it. He left just like that, no further explanation, didn’t even give her a second to register what was happening, much less start making requests.
Sandy stood from where she had been sitting, looking out the window, and came to investigate what he tossed. She found a brown dress, long and shapeless with a high scoop neckline and a decorative pin on one shoulder. She looked it over for a moment before shrugging and going into her bathroom to put it on. She wasn’t going to get undressed in the bedroom. Not when those two constantly entered without warning.
The dress was surprisingly tight, especially around her hips. Sandy frowned at herself in the mirror as she turned. She recalled how slender Elffa looked and thought maybe it was a design choice that worked for telfay females, but not curvier human females.
She considered taking it off but decided not to. Though she didn’t particularly like how well this dress broadcasted her figure, she wasn’t trying to buck authority yet. So, she left it as is and returned to her room to change from her comfy orthopedic sandals into a pair of brown ankle boots that were only a few shades lighter than the dress – the nicest shoes she owned.
She was pulling her hair back into a neat chignon when the door opened again and Green stepped inside, hissing in irritation.
However, he stopped immediately upon catching sight of her. He came up short, staring with wide eyes and a partially dropped mouth. Sandy didn’t think this look was especially attractive, but she had to remember that, to aliens, humans were the sexiest species in the known galaxy. In a dress this tight, she probably looked outright obscene.
But never let it be said that she didn’t follow orders.
She clasped her hands neatly in front of her and met his burning gaze calmly. It still took him a few seconds to realize that she was waiting for him. He jerked himself out of his daze with a shake of his muzzle and an annoyed hiss. Like he was mad that she had even that much power over him.
“Let’s go,” he ordered gruffly, turning.
Blue was in the doorway, staring in very much the same way Green had, but he came back around when Green shoulder checked him as he walked past. The two males looked supremely annoyed as Sandy calmly walked between them.
She asked no further questions and got no further information – she could mention the food thing, but she doubted it would go anywhere. And she didn’t want to talk to them anyway. She was led silently out to the front to a waiting hover car. It was empty and silent as she sat down. The ratchi duo went to the pilot compartment and began flying her away to some unknown location. She still wasn’t afraid yet and wouldn’t be until she had reason.
They flew back towards the city but, again, cut around it. Flying in the opposite direction of the space port that, even from this distance, she could see was busy. If this place had a space port, then an embassy should be nearby, right? That would make sense – she hoped. She wasn’t planning on running right away, not until she figured out a bit more about what was going on, and especially not without making sure Rane was okay, but it wouldn’t hurt to think about.
She didn’t know where they were going, but they passed what appeared to be an elevated train heading in the same direction. They moved too fast for her to really see anyone inside, but it was a massive train, twice as wide as human trains, and different in design. Before she could really appreciate it, however, it was gone, and they were flying over carefully maintained fields.
Not like farming fields. They were game fields. There were people down there playing a game that looked sort of like soccer, but with less players and not isolated to feet use only. But she didn’t get a chance to look at that much either because it was also gone in an instant.
The car turned, granting her a brief glimpse of an absolutely massive stadium.
Her eyes widened as she stared at the huge building towering overhead. Like a mountain, casting a long shadow over the grassy fields. It was dark gray, trimmed with the same jade green and golden accents. She’d compare it to the Colosseum, with similar layers of archways, but the style was different, more elegant, and it was far bigger. Intimidatingly large. Something sparkled behind the walls, barely visible over the top – a dome perhaps? – but she didn’t get a chance to get a look before the hover was flying inside one of the many archways near the top.
The hover car parked inside on a small, private dock. Something closed behind them, making everything dim in comparison to the bright sun outside. Then Green was there, opening the door, allowing her to step out.
“That way,” he grunted, pointing as she looked around.
This place was nice. Not grungy or plain like a parking garage. It was fully air conditioned, with sparkling marble floors and gold and jade trim on everything. A spiral staircase at the end began moving when she stepped on it, bearing her upwards to the floor right above.
A private room, she realized, stepping off the moving steps – the ratchi duo remaining below. Not that they needed to worry, since this place was apparently closed off. The only other door here led to a private bathroom that she could see through a slight crack. Besides that, there was comfortable seating, a bar covered in food and drinks, and screens along the wall.
All of that, however, barely registered. She walked forward, jaw agape, staring out into the biggest superstructure she’d ever seen. Massive and sparkling and beautiful – completely unreal in scale and mind boggling in majesty.
One entire wall of the room was nothing but clear glass, and beyond it was the interior of a colossal stadium. She saw more private boxes, all ringing around the top. Below that, filling the middle to right above the ground floor, was seating for thousands, easily. Above the boxes, there were even more seats, stretching up towards the sky. All of them pointing inward.
In the center of the stadium, there wasn’t a field or a court or anything like that. Instead, the entire thing was taken up by what appeared to be a massive, almost liquid appearing, sphere. Four enormous metal spikes cradled it, lights sparking inside them, while a circular, mechanical bed below twisted and sparked, like a base that was holding the impossible globe in place. The outside of the sphere seemed to ripple a bit, like it was liquid, but she could tell she wasn’t looking at a huge ball of water.
