The Lothians abducted Kaylen Sanchez on April 7, 1998 at 2:51 PM. By 3:06 PM she realized three certainties.

First, that she had never experienced such excruciating pain and suffering in all her life.

During the abduction, Kaylen was awake and observant but could not move her body. She watched the syringe approach her blinkless eye and felt both the penetration and the suction of her aqueous fluid. The Lothians yanked off a toenail, made a deep incision into her abdomen, and inserted an ear probe which ruptured her eardrum.

A metallic implement cracked her breastbone in half, then snapped all 24 ribs into splinters as it pried her chest open. She felt a blade lacerate her internal organs. A spurt of blood fell into her good eye and everything became tinted with a rose-colored haze.

With screams of anguish trapped inside her like a caged lion, she hardened. Their release would have brought at least a bit of consolement.

Second, Kaylen affirmed an unbreakable empathy and allegiance to her fellow human species. All of them. She wanted no one else to ever experience this tortuous captivity.

Third, if she survived, she would dedicate her life to destroying these aliens.

It was with this resolve that she entered the Reaction Room, a chamber the aliens used to free their abductees from the mental hold that had frozen them during their probing. The Lothians enjoyed watching their abductees react. Some would scream, have a heart attack, or a complete mental and physical breakdown.

Before entering, however, the Lothians used their expertise in tissue regeneration to fix the harm they inflicted on Kaylen. As she stood motionless in line with other abductees, she heard screams and sobs. No one came back out.

She galvanized herself against whatever pain was on the other side of that door.

Once inside, she felt the release of the mental hold. No pain came. She realized that the delayed reaction to the abduction had caused the previous abductees to react in the way they did.

Kaylen was stoic, looking the aliens in the eyes defiantly.

After an apprehensive minute, one of the Lothians stood up, walked toward a door, and motioned for Kaylen to follow. She did.

She spent the next thirty years with the Lothians.

They assigned her sleeping quarters and a language tutor. Once sufficiently fluent, she worked with Malgaia, the Lothian who escorted her from the Reaction Room and the lead geneticist on the ship.

Her education and skills as a nurse made her useful in the genetics lab. She prepared tissue samples and identified beneficial genetic properties. She learned that the Lothians scoured the galaxy to identify and collect living specimens to improve their genetic makeup. They incorporated genetic modifications anytime, causing vast differences in appearance and abilities.

Lothians showed resistance to an incredible array of diseases. Kaylen worked diligently to earn their respect and camaraderie, but secretly used her work to look for vulnerabilities in their genome.

Kaylen and Malgaia spent extensive hours in the laboratory together and outside of work. Kaylen developed a passion for genetics and enjoyed the academic discussions with Malgaia.

Sometime between their visit to the Auran eclipse and their lengthy stay on Ediplous, they fell in love.

Malgaia confirmed it. “Our togetherness is tender and brings joy to me,” he said one day. “As you know, Lothians are both female and male, and can create a new child at will. Let us create together.”

Malgaia extracted a bit of Kaylen’s blood and absorbed it into the womb. Even though Lothians could improve their own genetics, only chance determined a baby’s genes. Genetic enhancement started after birth.

Malgaia birthed their baby six months later, around the time the ship returned to Earth’s solar system. Kaylen’s enthusiasm for having a baby allowed her to induce lactation and breast feed her Lothian baby.

For the first time in decades, her resolution to destroy the Lothians wavered.

Weeks later, Kaylen walked into the exam room and saw a small human boy of around seven years old on the exam table. The tissue sampler scoured the exposed organs beneath his cracked open chest. Kaylen saw the terror in his glasslike eyes.

She cracked.

She returned to her quarters, lifted the cover to a concealed chamber, and removed a decimator. During a brief stint in the ship’s weapons department, she stole a plum-sized explosive from her workstation. She knew nothing about its capabilities until she saw it vaporize a Holweni destroyer. She also learned that it detonates seconds after atomic conveyance.

Holding it in her hand rekindled the rage she felt during her own abduction. She softened briefly when she looked at her baby, the most precious Lothian she knew. The baby’s innocent human eyes stared at her.

Kaylen dropped the decimator into her baby’s bottle and snatched her baby from the crib. She hurried to the lab’s dispatch quarters and readied an escape pod for ejection. With tears in her eyes, she held her baby close and released the pod.

Ten minutes after landing in a cornfield on Earth, Kaylen heard Malgaia’s voice.

“Why did you run away?”

“The cruelty,” Kaylen said. “It’s unbearable. You cannot treat humans like that. Anyone like that.” Her voice trailed off, defeated.

“Our time together is over, then.” Malgaia’s indifferent tone jarred Kaylen. “I’ll take my baby. You stay here.”

He abruptly sealed Kaylen in a mental hold, extricated the bundle of blankets from her arms, and activated his atomic conveyance. They disappeared.

Kaylen regained control and screamed, “Malgaia! No!”

A sudden explosion of light and debris punctuated the sky above. Kaylen collapsed to the ground, weeping.

The sound of her baby cooing behind the corn plants interrupted Kaylen’s sobs.