Chapter 3: Coming to Terms With an Alien Abduction

The first thing she saw when she awoke again was Nadia's face. Another round of palpitations plagued her. Her senses seemed to be drowned underneath water and she was staring at this other human's face who had little sympathy for her. 

"Deep breaths," Nadia commanded. "Come on, breathe through it!"

Though the voice sounded faraway, Ellis followed it. After a few minutes, she felt her racing heartbeat slow to a near-normal pace. 

"Why me?" she asked finally. "Out of all other people in these universes, why was I picked to be the Empress? Surely, the Emperor would prefer to marry someone of his own race."

As awkward as it sounded coming out of her mouth, she knew it was not derogatory. Marrying another species wasn't the norm when she was on Earth, so she couldn't see why it would be so anywhere else.

"Well, Zothea, the planet you will be living in most of the year, is actually much more advanced than humans. They found species that are genetically and biologically compatible with Zotheans. Usually, the intelligence quotient of these species is similar. Genetically speaking, very few people can match with others." Nadia explained. "Furthermore, Zothean women have been all but wiped out. Over the past few centuries, the female population has died from diseases and no new females have been born. According to records, it has been about seventy years since a Zothean female was born."

Ellis squinted. "So, you mean to say that women from different species are trafficked to this solar system to become broodmares?" Well, wasn't that wonderful? 

"You don't have to put it so crudely," Nadia scoffed. 

"Well, there is no other term for it," Ellis gritted out. "And Earth. Since when have human females been trafficked in such a way?"

Nadia glared at Ellis. "Well, for the survival of the species, Zotheans scouted the nearby planets for women with close genetic properties and bred with them. With time, they broadened their search." She paused. "Earth has been on the radar for two hundred years now, give or take a few." She shrugged. 

"Okay, and what is the selection process like? Why does a prospective lawyer find herself in this position?"

Nadia rolled her eyes in frustration. "Well, at some point in Earth's history, your remains were found by archaeologists. That is how it came to be in the Zothean system. Your DNA matched with the Emperor and here you are."

"So, you just kidnapped a perfectly healthy person who had a bright future ahead of them?" She couldn't believe it. 

"Well, you weren't a healthy person."

"What does that mean? What if I had a husband or children to look after?" she screamed. 

"Well, I don't know the science behind it but Zotheans have found a way to eliminate mated women from the selection pool."

'Selection pool. Great.'

"And what was the talk about not being healthy?"

Nadia gave her a scathing look. "Miss Lawyer didn't get her annual medical checks, did she? You had a ticking time bomb in your head. I found you right before you died." She shrugged. 

She had missed a couple of medical checks but a time bomb? 

"Well, I'm no doctor, don't ask me what that was about!" she shrugged. "But you were supposed to die, so I traveled back to the exact moment before you die and switched your brain off."

"Like a television," Ellis forced out the words. "Then why am I not dead already?" she challenged. Something had to give. 

"Well, I basically switched your body off, left you to the doctors and they tinkered around with you. Now you're perfectly healthy!" Talk about fake enthusiasm. 

Ellis tried hard to embrace all the information thrown at her. 

"Okay, you jumped through time and saved me. But that means I just vanished from Earth. So my parents think... what?" Ellis felt her heart stutter. She had only hoped to cut contact with them for a couple of days before talking to them in detail. 

"Well, you had a message on your phone. I sent that to your parents. They know you're going to a good place." She paused and looked at Ellis with some pity. "They probably think you killed yourself."

Ellis screamed. She ranted and raged. She mourned. Her parents would be devastated. 

"They deserve better. They deserve to know that I am alive. Why would you take me?"

"Well, I saved you. Your parents will have the same reaction as they would if you died from a neurological illness." Nadia shrugged. 

"No! It's not the same. They knew that I wasn't happy with how they treated me. They knew I wanted to escape. If they think I killed myself, they will put the blame on themselves!" And she didn't want that. They thought their daughter dead. Because of them. And they didn't even have a body to mourn.

"Take me back!" she gritted through her teeth. 

"Well, you won't make it in time even if you try. Something about time and space. Shit gets fucked up if you mess with time."

Ellis screamed in frustration. 

"Look, girl. You can't go back to a time when you are originally there on earth. Now that you are fixed, you can't go to a doctor, so any disease you have will kill you even if I can place you at the perfect time. And the bad thing? Once you are pronounced dead, you can't come back."

Because that was illegal and fraud. 

Ellis's shoulders sank in disbelief. 

"So be happy that you were given another chance at life." Nadia looked satisfied. Immensely satisfied with the whole situation. 

"And what are you? My handler? Are you supposed to act this way with me when I am your future Empress? You've been nothing but impudent since I woke up."

Nadia threw her head back in laughter. 

"Quite the opportunist, aren't you? Yes, you are being brought to the planet to become the Empress, but you aren't Empress yet. So, you're just a new subject I need to transport. Moreover, as your keeper, don't argue with me."

"Are you going to pull the 'I'm not my brother's keeper' card?" Ellis retorted. 

"Well, if you don't shut up, I might just leave you alone. They will just think you pressed the wrong button and turned into slime."

Ellis stared at her suspiciously but kept her mouth shut. 

She had a lot of questions to ask though.

"The emperor, does he look like Nin?" she asked tentatively. Now, that was a million-dollar question. Being trafficked to another galaxy was one thing, but marrying something that doesn't look remotely similar to her would be... strange. 

She was definitely not a fan of bestiality. Count her out. She was running if that was the case.