Dina sniffed quietly to herself as she cradled the tablet in her arms. On the screen was the latest of Korin’s fights. This time, it was against two men freshly pulled out of the pods. She could tell because their suits were pristine and shiny compared to the patched, scarred surface of her husband’s armor. It was a brutal fight and she couldn’t bear to see how it ended so she slowed down the video to prolong the agony.

Her eyes were blurry as she watched Korin’s attack with his plasma lance. The brilliant flame swept along the inside of the fighting ring, the tip of the flame splashing against some form of force shield that protected the aliens, and then into the side of one of his opponents.

She wondered what the newcomer thought. He probably had been out of his stasis pod for only a few hours or days before being thrust into a fight. He was going to die within five minutes of entering the ring without any skills or talents. It seemed pointless and brutal, just a way for the damn aliens to cheer and bet on the winners while enjoying themselves.

The bitterness of her position was magnified by her own situation. She still had a scar from crotch to throat and she could feel her insides twisting around the channel that could now take a meter-long cock with relative ease. But in the end, raping her was the same thing as throwing Korin into a fight; they were nothing more than diversions for the aliens as they looted the ship.

A tear ran down her cheek. She wiped at it and returned to watching the video.

The camera was focusing on the plasma flame as it sliced through the first opponent’s arm. A cloud of vaporized flesh and blood burst around the flames, curling in the air as the lance continued to cut into Korin’s opponent.

Movement on the corner of her vision stopped her. She looked up to see Harmmon and Naam coming into the room, arguing. Both of them had their quills stand up on end and Harmmon gestured around her with sharp waves of her hand.

Naam looked unamused as he hummed back, the lower tones almost shaking the floor as he pointed directly at Dina.

Seeing his thick finger aimed directly at herself, Dina felt a quivering in her belly, the first tingles of fear that rose up around her. Gulping, she clutched the tablet tight to her chest and lifted her body so she could slide on the bench.

Once on top, she clutched her knees to her chest and kept the tablet ground between her thighs and breasts. She could see the video still slowly advancing the video, her husband’s plasma spear almost cutting completely through his opponent.

The two aliens continued to argue as they approached. Harmmon glanced at her and there appeared to be sadness in her eyes.

Dina whimpered. She shook her head and clutched the edge of the bed. No, they can’t be coming to rape her yet, she wasn’t ready. The tears from watching her husband turned into tears of fear. Panting, she shook her head again, this time more forcefully. “No, not now.”

Every part of her body grew tight as she shook her head. “No, no.”

They stopped less than a meter in front of the controls for the cell. Naam reached out for it but Harmmon batted his hand away.

Almost instantly, the quills on her back flattened. She stepped back and brought her hand to her side.

Naam’s quills flared out, spreading out until he looked like a ball of spikes and needles. His face twisted into an angry glare as he took a step toward her, raising one hand as if to slap her.

Dina wanted to Harmmon to lash out, to do more than just bat Naam’s hand away, but she didn’t. Instead, she remained there with a devastated look in her red eyes as Naam held his position, ready to strike if she did or said anything.

Dina whimpered slowly, watching with fear.

Naam stepped away and back to the controls. Without looking at it, he reached over with his hand and smacked a button.

Instantly, red warning displays flashed across the wall, ones that she hadn’t seen since the day she first arrive. There was atmosphere and air quality reports, warnings about a toxic environment, and even chemical analysis. The largest was a display that showed a rapidly increasing parts-per-million rise in acids and poisons.

Dina stared at the wall of flashing red, unable to gather her thoughts. She knew what it meant, Naam had opened up the cell and the air that had melted the flesh off of its victims was now pouring around her. She was going to be gassed to death and there was nothing she could do about it.

Clutching the tablet tightly, she took a deep breath and held it. It wouldn’t matter, but she had to do something .

The first burning scent the alien’s air tickled her senses. It burned the back of her throat and sent shudders of agony coursing along her skin. She looked around for something, anything to cover her face and keep breathing but there was nothing.

With a cry, she flung the tablet aside and rushed to the delivery device. Looking directly at Harmmon, she pounded on the glass. “Ki, ki! Ki!” She knew it was the word for no.

Harmmon’s quills were grinding and rippling along her back. The red and oranges growing darker with the second. She turned and glared at Naam who watched Dina with wide, cruel eyes. He looked excited, with his quills up and his cock half-hard, but that only made the growing terror worse.

Dina realized that she wasting oxygen. She tried to gulp in another breath of air but she was too close to the glass and she ended up brining the burning air deep into her lungs.

Her throat and insides jerked violently at the burning acid. She started to cough but it only made things worse. She tried to stop but she couldn’t, her body refused to give up expelling the poison from her lungs but only managed to bring more back in.

Dina clawed at her throat and lungs. She couldn’t stop herself, she couldn’t do anything else. The pain increased until it was an all consuming agony that spread out across every centimeter of her body. She sobbed as it continued to seep into her lungs, filling them with acidic agony.

Her legs failed her. Collapsing to the ground, she rolled to the side.

She could see the video still playing on the tablet. It had continued to advance. It was a different shot. The second opponent had a hand-held blowtorch aimed directly at her husband’s shoulder. With a furious look visible through the face shield, he was pounding on Korin’s fake with one hand awhile keeping the flame on one of the patched scratches with the other.

Dina’s mouth opened and she gasped despite everything she could to stop it.

Acid filled her.

She exhaled, sobbing.

On the screen, her husband was dying.

The world grew darker.

She inhaled again.

And then again.

She wasn’t dead.

The air hurt her lungs, it burned, but it wasn’t melting her skin.

A low humming filled the air, Naam laughing.

Tears running down her cheeks, Dina looked up to see Harmmon as the female rushed in and fell to her knees next to Dina. Humming something too soft to get through the pounding in Dina’s ears, Harmmon scooped her up into a tight hug.

Dina looked at the slow-motion video on the tablet. Her husband was still dying.

She wished she was dying with him.

With another deep breath, she tried to hold it to kill herself.

It burned but wasn’t agony. The pain had subsided, the fear ebbing away to leave her feeling weak and helpless. The acid didn’t even burn her skin.

They had changed her more than she realized. She didn’t need a cell anymore, she didn’t need oxygen or protection.

With a sob, she buried her face into Harmmon’s shoulder and breathed in the spicy scent of the alien’s body. Tears rolled down her face, leaving tingling marks as the salt interacted with the atmosphere.

Harmmon wrapped her thick arms around Dina. “Geffim, geffim. Mina geffim. Harmmon sorry.” The low hum was the only relief that Dina could have.