A hand pressed against her shoulder. “Dina?”

Dina gasped as she snapped into wakefulness, her finger dropping down to activate the engines before her vision came into focus. She didn’t know she had passed out.

Another hand caught her. It was large and wedge-like.

With a cry, she flung herself away from the alien’s hand. Her body struck against Korin’s chest and she tumbled to the ground. “No, no! Not again!”

She curled into a fetal position, sobbing. Cooling fluids oozed from her ruined pussy, soaking her thighs. The smell of drying cum and blood filled her nostrils, choking her.

Korin crouched down and held her. “No, I’m here. We’re safe. We got away from the Dilifin just a few seconds ago. We’re in FTL. We’re safe. We’re safe.”

Sobbing, Dina looked up at her heavily scarred husband. He was out of his armor. The days of fighting had aged him. He looked at least ten years older than her.

Her hand reached out for him, touching him.

“We made it, Love. We’re going back home.”

Unlike the slow travel of the stasis ship, the rescue ship could use the FTL beacons that the stasis ship had been dropping behind it as it mapped out space. What would take centuries to arrive at their destination would only take days to return.

She sobbed. “W-We are?”

“We are.” He lifted his gaze up. “Thank you.”

“You are safe,” hummed Harmmon.

Dina gasped and turned around, the world spinning as she looked at the towering alien. “Harmmon?”

The orange-quilled female held up a plasma gun and set it down. "I’m sorry for what I’ve done.”

"The others?” She knew there was no way they could have been rescued but she held onto a small thread of hope.

"I’m sorry. They remain slaves.”

Dina turned and clutched Korin tightly. Sobs wracked her body as she thought about all the women in the cells, the humans still in their pods. They had no chance to escape, no freedom from being raped and tortured.

"There was no way, Dina. If we gave the fleet time, they would have destroyed us.” Harmmon’s voice was raspy and her quills were limp along her back. She had blood and burns covering her nearly naked body.

“I-I know, all those people.” She looked up at her husband.

Korin had tears in his own eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said. He reached down to hold her tightly. “We couldn’t do it.”

A sharp pain radiated from Dina’s insides. She cringed and let out a cry.

Korin looked up alarmed.

"She needs help. Bring her to the surgery.” Harmmon coughed violently.

“I-I don’t know what you are saying.”

Dina gasped. “Surgery.”

Korin scooped Dina up and rushed over to the surgery. He almost threw her in and then straightened her lips, trailing his fingers along her thighs and up along the ragged opening of her sex before touching her stomach, breasts, and then lips. “Don’t die on me, Love. Please?”

She smiled. “I won’t.”

"Now send your lover back to the controls and let me repair this damage.”

Dina didn’t want to lose her husband. She looked pleadingly at him, stroking his hand. There was blood and burns covering both of them. They were barely alive. “I… I’m okay with her. She helped me.”

Korin sighed. “I’ll be right there.”

Harmmon frowned as he returned to the front of the ship, his bare footsteps fading away. She turned and then looked around for a moment before closing a transparent shield over Dina.

As she did, the auto surgery came to life. A prompt displayed on the screen. It rolled over a few times before “Scanning” came into view.

Harmmon panted heavily against the side of the control. She fished into a narrow belt and pulled out a portable drive. Shaking, she glanced down. "Where would I put data into this ship? I have a copy of my fleet’s data.” Her hum echoed through the speakers inside the shield.

A twinge blurred Dina’s vision. She lifted up one shaking hand to pointed to the general access port. It was the same physical shape as the ones on the FCM Dilifin 3.

Harmmon tried to insert the drive into her hand but missed. Her actions were clumsy as she tried again. On the third try, she finally managed to slide it into place. A loading screen started to pull down massive amount of data, information from the aliens.

She smiled and dug into her belt again, this time pulling up the tablet that Dina had used. "For later.”

Dina smiled.

The screen above her flashed and gave a wall of warnings. It detected the surgical alterations and her chemical changes. It also caught massive bleeding along the entire length of her pussy where Kriim’s cock had torn her open. There were hundreds of other minor entries.

The computer selected the most threatening for triage, her bleeding, and a program was loaded. In response, tendrils rose up in the air before carefully delving between her legs.

Dina moaned at the discomfort but she knew that the surgery would prevent her from bleeding to death. She groaned and squirmed, unable to hold still.

When she looked up, Harmmon was gone.

Worried, Dina lifted her head. "Harmmon? Where are you?”

The alien picked herself up off the ground. Her face was black and her eyes glazed. "Sorry. I won’t be making it,” she said in a low, broken hum.

"What? No!” Dina tried to flail at the tendrils to free herself. "You should be in here. Let me out. Come in. You can save yourself!”

Harmmon tapped something on the controls.

Plastic restraints shot out from the bed of the surgery. They looped around Dina’s wrists and ankles before snapping back into place. The length tightened until she was firmly pinned down.

Another tap on the control brought up the mute indicator.

"I can’t breathe this air any more than you could mine.”

"No, no, you can’t—” It didn’t matter what Dina said, her voice wasn’t being transmitted.

"We should have never caught your ship, Dina. We should have never done what we did. I can’t stop my kin from from enslaving the rest of you. For that, I apologize.” Her quills fluttered weakly.

Dina screamed helplessly. Her insides twisted violently as the surgery worked at repairing her damage.

"When I picked up the gun, I knew I wasn’t going to survive. You will, and that… that is the only thing I can do right now.”

"No!”

"There is no program or time to figure out how to change me to fit your world. No experiments, no attempts. You and Korin are going to live… I…” She coughed. "… I promise.”

Dina sobbed as the alien dropped down for a moment. There was a loud thud as Harmmon hit the ground.

Dina was helpless to do anything but scream as her friend suffocated to death.