Beast in the Cage: A Scifi Alien Romance

when he gets an idea in his mind. He has a lot of aggression.
“I’ve tried talking with him about it but he prefers to release his stress with his fists. I don’t know what demons he has but they’re powerful. So, he went and he fought… and now he refuses to leave.
“This prison is all he’s ever known and until very recently, I never thought he would reach out to another person and try to make contact. He did. And that person turned out to be you.”
I had no idea of Kren’s painful past. I thought he was just a big dumb lug but there was so much more to him than that.
A tragic past.
My heart went out to him.
Given his story, it’s no surprise he liked talking with me. He never usually talked with anyone.
“Normally, I would let him do as he pleases,” the Supervisor said, although he didn’t look particularly happy about that. “It’s his life, after all. But then I think about how his father died. An unfortunate accident that ended his life. Kren is the last of his species and that’s why I thought…”
He looked at me and the words died on his lips.
He shook his head.
“You know, sometimes an idea sounds fine in your head but when you try to put it into words… it sounds ridiculous.”
He got to his feet.
“No. Forget it. It was a mistake to ask you to come here.”
He extended a spindly hand to me.
“I believe a handshake is how you say goodbye to your species?”
I looked at his hand but didn’t take it.
“What was the idea?”
He lowered his hand and his smile fell with it.
“It’s outrageous. As a scientist, sometimes we get excited by our ideas and… It’s dumb. I’ll find some other way.”
“Other way to do what?”
The Supervisor looked me over and searched my face.
He must have found something he liked or respected there because he leaned forward and spoke with his hands.
“To save his species,” he said meaningfully. “There’s so much more we need to study and learn about him. He could hold great secrets that might open the door to new science and discoveries, much like the blinkers.”
“How can you save his species? He’s the last of his kind.”
The Supervisor nodded.
“He is. But not if he were to have offspring.”
I let his words wash over me.
Offspring? But that meant mating. That meant sex. That meant children.
And he was asking me.
My lips felt numb.
“Kren is the very last of his species and I want to bring his species back,” the Supervisor said. “Maybe if he had something else to live for, it might encourage him to leave this place. If he mated with a female, his species could be saved.”
I sensed what he was saying but I couldn’t bring myself to formulate it in my mind.
“What I’m suggesting is, you allow him to impregnate you,” the Supervisor said. “You bear his offspring and we’ll see if we can create a large enough population with other females to kickstart his species once more.”
He just sat there.
I blinked, staring back at him.
“What?”
“I told you it was crazy.”
“You want me to be a mother?”
“No, not a mother. A surrogate.”
Was this guy crazy? I should have left when he said it was a crazy idea.
“I’m sorry,” he said, raising his hands. “I thought it was worth a shot, that’s all. I didn’t mean any disrespect. I just thought… Never mind. I’m sorry for wasting your time. If you’ll follow the guards, they’ll return you to the Pool.”
The Pool.
That was where I would return.
That was where I would end up.
And who knew where I would go after that.
“Guards,” the Supervisor said.
The door opened and they stepped inside the room.
“Please take Ivy back to the Prize Pool,” he said.
He looked at me again.
“Once again, I’m sorry. I meant no disrespect.”
“Have you done this kind of thing before? Surrogates?”
“No.”
“Why now?”
“Because Kren has never shown much interest in the Prizes before. I didn’t think it was an option. But now, we have you.”
My head was fuzzy and I found it difficult to concentrate.
“Why do you care?”
“Because no scientist likes to see a creature become extinct. Especially when it’s within our power to prevent it. I’ve watched Kren grow into a strong young man. But he’s lost his way. If I could give him a family to replace the one he’d lost… To give him a future… He might not need to fight so much in the pits. Maybe he could have a new life somewhere among the stars.”
The guards reached for my arm to pull me up onto my feet.
The Supervisor raised a hand for the guards to wait.
“If I did this…” I said, and I couldn’t believe the words coming out of my mouth. “If I was a surrogate for his child, I… I would want something in return.”
“Payment? I don’t have a lot of money but—”
“Not money. I want to go home.”
“Home?”
“To Earth. I want you to send me back so I can forget this whole thing ever happened.”
“Of course. I can arrange that. Are you sure you can do this? I understand if you can’t.”
Here was the truth of the matter:
I was going to be forced to have sex with one or more of these creatures over and over again.
I would get nothing out of it. Except a lot of pain.
At least this way I had some control over the situation.
There was at least a chance I could get out of there without having my life ruined.
It was far from ideal but what other choice did I have?
Besides, if kept close to the Supervisor, if I learned more about how the shuttlecraft worked, maybe I could rescue myself from the situation and never have to look back ever again.
“Yes,” I said. “Yes, I’ll do it.”
“That’s excellent news! I’ll prepare the necessary equipment for childbirth. I can’t tell you what this means to me, what it will mean to Kren and his species.”
“Sure,” I said, my voice numb.
“Return to the Pool,” the Supervisor said,