Exclusive Possession – CH 003

Chapter 3. A Love at First Sight

To my surprise, the only door in the room could be opened. Outside was a long, narrow, dark gray corridor covered in metal, so it seemed they didn’t intend to imprison me in the room.

Maybe they felt it was unnecessary; this was outer space, and I had nowhere else to go.

After taking a few deep breaths, I felt I was fully mentally prepared and left the room.

The corridor was quiet, with closed cabin doors on both sides, and not a soul in sight. After walking for a while, I finally saw a room with an open door. When I got to the door, I was somewhat surprised.

The interior was very spacious, with a dark, gleaming ceiling and walls. Strings of white data and characters flowed between the walls like an endless waterfall.

That was amazing. I thought this must be some kind of control center.

I looked out the window and immediately tensed up—a tall, slender figure in a light gray military uniform was standing there with his back to me.

Perhaps he heard the noise, because he turned around and looked at me.

I breathed a sigh of relief—it was the robot guard captain.

The first two times I saw him, he was from a distance. Only today did I see him clearly.

He had a silver-white metallic face, with clear red eyes set deep within them, round and bulging like two small lanterns. He had no nose or ears, and his mouth was a thin slit. When he blinked, a thin metallic eyelid would cover his eyeballs.

This reminded me of the big-eyed elves in fantasy movies, which was a bit creepy. But for some reason, I wasn’t afraid of him. I even had a gut feeling that he was a gentle… robot?

“Miss Hua, welcome to the ‘Angel.’ I am the Commander’s bodyguard captain—Mop.” He bowed gracefully to me, his narrow, slender frame resembling a bent tree branch. “The Commander encountered an emergency and needed to leave for a day or two.”

The man wasn’t on the spaceship? I suddenly felt a lot relieved.

Mop took a few steps to the side, where there was a pillar about waist-high with a flat, sloping top covered with a layer of blue liquid crystal. He said, “Please put your hand on it.”

Since we were already here, we might as well make the best of it; we were already on the spaceship anyway.

I placed my hand on the top of the pillar, my palm feeling slightly warm and smooth. After a few seconds, a slow, gentle flow of heat suddenly washed over me. My mind went blank for a moment, but it was brief, and I immediately snapped back to reality.

“The data pillar contains basic information about the Planet Stan,” he said, “and it has already been scanned into your brain.”

He was speaking another language, but I understood it; it was Stan. More information began to flood my mind, a feeling that was both novel and unsettling.

I now knew their origins.

Stan was one of the most advanced civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy, originally created by humans. However, after thousands of years of intermarriage among various races, there were no longer any pure-blooded humans on the planet.

Because human genes were recognized as the most genetically stable genes of advanced civilizations (beast genes were too prone to mutation, and mechanical genes had a very low evolutionary rate, and so on), government departments, on behalf of a few powerful individuals, secretly selected purebred girls with superior genes from other planets, rigorously trained them from childhood, and brought them back to Stan Planet for marriage upon reaching adulthood. This had become a common practice.

Some individuals also sought out their favorite Earth women and brought them back to Stan.

But I was confused: according to Stan law, intergalactic mating or marriage must be “voluntary” on both sides. That man, however, forced me.

This was unreasonable.

As one of the top ten commanders on Stanstar, he had no need to travel thousands of light-years to force himself on an ordinary woman.

Thinking back carefully, he did apologize and said he would make amends. If he was just venting his frustrations, there was no need for him to say those things. There must have been other reasons behind what happened back then, forcing him to do what he did.

But that had nothing to do with me.

I just wanted to go home.

I didn’t even want to see him. He was a complete stranger to me, yet he was the one who glimpsed my youthful innocence and witnessed my trembling madness. Just thinking about it made me uncomfortable, because our bodies were once so wildly intimate.

“Is the Commander taking me back to Stan to make amends?” I said. “Please tell him that no one else knew about this, and he can go find a better woman. You can safely send me home.”

I thought he brought me back to Stan perhaps to cover up his past mistakes and to avoid legal punishment.

Mop said respectfully, “You misunderstand. It has nothing to do with making amends. You should already know that the Commander possesses some Orcish genes. Orcs are highly loyal to their mates. You had already had an intimate relationship, and he would only ever want you as his woman in his entire life.”

I was completely taken aback; I hadn’t expected this at all. If what Mop said was true, wouldn’t he not let me off the hook?

Mop seemed oblivious to my emotions and continued in a soft, deep voice like a news anchor: “Next, please allow me to show you around the ‘Angel.’ This spaceship is a wedding gift prepared by the Commander.”

“……wedding?”

**

For the next hour, I absentmindedly followed Mop on his tour of the spaceship.

Of course I didn’t want to get married. Was there any way to resolve this?

Mop first took me to the energy storage compartment—a mysterious reactor shrouded in mist. Because of the radiation, we could only peek through the hatch.

Later we went to the hangar—a very large warehouse with two extremely long runways. It was empty now, though. Mop said the Commander would let me purchase aircraft according to my preferences in the future. Hearing this, I felt a little itchy, because it seemed like a very interesting prospect.

But it was just a fleeting itch.

Perhaps noticing my interest in airplanes, Mop took me to the medical room. It turned out that next to the medical room, there was a small hangar with two real airplanes parked inside.

They were about the size of a helicopter, with a silver-white surface, a small oval fuselage, and a streamlined silhouette, like two beautiful, smooth giant eggs.

“That is an emergency escape fighter, currently the best-performing single-seat aircraft, and one of the gifts the Commander gave you,” he said. “It has the simplest fully automatic control system, and the command language could be selected as Chinese, so you can fly it too. When we get to Stanstar, perhaps the Commander would fly the fighter with you to see the beautiful nebula.”

I was immediately stunned.

Fully automated driving system? Chinese language? I could drive that too?

“Can I give it a try?” I asked Mop with a smile.

Mop shook his head: “No. You cannot leave the ship without the Commander’s orders.”

Leave the spaceship?

My thoughts were still hazy, but after hearing what he said, they immediately became clear—maybe… this fighter jet could help me escape.

He added, “It’s getting late. I’ll take you back to your rest cabin. Get some sleep, and perhaps the Commander will be back soon.”

We left the medical room, and he closed the hatch and entered the code. There was a small keypad on the right side of the door, with Roman numerals on it. I heard him press eight keys, but because his body blocked my view, I only saw the last two digits were 2 and 5. Then the door clicked shut and locked.

**

I went back to my room and lay down on the bed alone.

I now had two options: one was to wait patiently for the Commander to return, feign compliance, and find a chance to escape later; the other was… to escape now.

As for marrying him with peace of mind? I had never even considered it.

I would never spend my life with a man who raped me.

I made my decision after only a short while. The thought of what he might do to me when he returned made me not want to stay here for even a second longer. As for feigning obedience with him, I knew I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

The chances of escaping now were slim, but perhaps once we reached Stan, the chances would be even slimmer. I’d give it a try; I wouldn’t lose anything, since things were already like this.

As for where I’d go after escaping? If I could actually appear on Earth in an alien fighter jet, I doubted he could take me away so easily.

I needed to deal with Mop first, sneak into the infirmary, and then escape in the plane. Mop, however, looked incredibly tall and powerful. When I first entered, I casually asked him what model he was, and he said he was an “AI-powered, nuclear-capable, fully armed robot.” What was that?

Was I, a woman of flesh and blood, really capable of subduing an armed robot?

I paced slowly back and forth in the room, when suddenly my gaze was drawn to something hanging on the wall. I hadn’t noticed it before.

That was a piece of…bone? It looked to be about 30 centimeters long, roughly the thickness of a thumb’s mouth, wide and evenly spaced, appearing snow-white and menacing under the light. I took it off the hook; it was cold and heavy in my hand—a real bone, probably from some kind of animal. I tapped it on the table; the sound was crisp, and it looked very hard, perfectly usable as a club.

If this spaceship was a gift to me, what special significance did this bone hold?

I pressed the communication button on the bedside table—Mop said to press this button whenever he needed to contact him.

“Miss Hua, how may I help you?” his voice came.

I touched the bone: “I found a bone in the room; what is it?”

“Miss, that was the Commander’s broken bone. I hoped you like it.”

I suddenly felt that the bone in my hand was a bit rough.

Mop continued, “Three years ago, the Commander led the fleet to destroy the Sirius mercenary legion. He himself was wounded in the battle and had his leg bone replaced with a metal one. This piece of bone was kept as a battle memento.”

I was a little surprised: “Why was it in the room?”

“I think that meant it’s for you.”

I turned off the communication button and examined the “gift” again. Giving me his own leg bone? What a bizarre act.

I tossed it onto the bedside table and ignored it, continuing to think of a way to escape. A few hours later, I decided to use the simplest method—faking illness.

“Mop…” I pressed the communication button. “I suddenly feel dizzy and nauseous; I feel terrible…”

“I’m coming right away!”

Mop quickly arrived, stood at the head of the bed, picked up one of my wrists, and placed his two silvery-white fingers on it.

I was taken aback. How could a robot take a pulse?

He pondered for a moment, then released my hand.

“Miss Hua, you were faking illness.” He blinked. “You wanted to go to the infirmary, then get on a fighter jet and escape, right? You shouldn’t be lying to me.”

I asked myself why he could see through my calm demeanor, and I couldn’t help but feel a flush of embarrassment.

Although he was a robot, he had always been respectful and gentle towards me, which greatly alleviated my anxiety after boarding the spaceship. Now, facing his accusations, I actually felt somewhat embarrassed. But then I thought about it again and realized they had forced me in first, so I felt relieved.

So I calmly looked him straight in the eye and said, “You misunderstood. I was indeed very uncomfortable.”

He remained unmoved, his pure red eyes fixed on me: “Miss Hua, I have medical diagnostic software installed in my body. I just scanned your entire body, and there’s indeed nothing wrong.”

He turned and walked towards the door: “I’m sorry, but in order for the Commander to see you the first thing when he returns, from now on I can’t let you leave the room. Please don’t do anything futile anymore.”

He walked away step by step, and I felt a throbbing in my temples. I knew very well that as soon as he left this room, the next time the door opened again, that man would appear. He… was so domineering, and he would most likely do those things to me again, over and over again, endlessly, just like that night.

I had to stop him; I had to get out of here. I had to go to the infirmary, get on a fighter jet, and escape! These thoughts burned in my mind like fire, impossible to suppress.

I reached out and touched it, grasping the hard bone. But could this bone defeat Mop? Could it shatter his metal skull?

I picked up the bone, jumped out of bed, and ran towards him.

The moment my foot touched the ground, he heard the sound, stopped, and turned around. By then, I was already in front of him, holding the bone.

“What did you want to do?” He took a step back and raised his metal arm to block in front of him.

I slammed it down!

Towards my own head.

“Thump!” I heard a muffled sound from deep within my head, as if my eardrums had vibrated. I hadn’t actually used much force, but my entire forehead was still throbbing with pain, and I saw stars before my eyes.

I strained to open my eyes, my vision blurring, and a warm, wet liquid trickled into them. Through my blurred vision, I saw Mop point a finger at my head: “You’re bleeding!”

I endured the pain and said to him, “Give me the gun, or I’ll kill myself.”

“Please don’t die!” He obediently drew his sidearm from his waist and handed it to me.

A surge of excitement welled up inside me—it seemed my thinking was right; my only asset was myself. Since he was ordered to escort me, he certainly wouldn’t dare let anything happen to me.

I took the gun and looked at it; it had a handle but no trigger. How did I use it?

Mop raised his hands in front of him, saying, “Miss Hua, please calm down. You can’t escape…”

“If it weren’t possible, you wouldn’t have tried to lock me up, right?” I said, my voice still trembling even though I had the upper hand. “Now put your hands behind your back and come with me to the medical room.”

Mop stood still, and I pointed the gun at the back of his head.

“Zzz—” Just then, a slight static came from the room’s communicator.

Mop suddenly stood up straight, and seeing his spirited appearance, I suddenly felt something was wrong.

A deep, calm voice came through the communicator: “Mop, is she alright?”

Hearing that voice made my head throb even more. Suppressing my discomfort, I leaned close to Mop’s ear and whispered, “Tell him everything is fine, then hang up. Otherwise, I’d shoot.”

Without even looking at me, Mop said in an extremely respectful tone, “Commander, she isn’t well. She is bleeding.”

I almost couldn’t catch my breath, but I couldn’t bring myself to just shoot him. And… how exactly did you use this alien gun?

“What happened?” His tone sounded a bit colder.

“Don’t say it!” I mouthed to Mop and pressed the gun hard against his head again.

But Mop’s voice grew louder: “She used your leg bone to smash her own head open, took my gun, and tried to force me to escape in a fighter jet. Right now, she’s pointing a gun at my head. I think she can kill me at any moment.”

My head was spinning, and blood blurred my vision. I knew that my womanly compassion had almost cost me my only chance to escape. Without further hesitation, I grabbed the bone and, with all my might, smashed it down on Mop’s head.

“Crack—” I heard the sound of metal clashing, and then I saw Mop close his eyes and fall to the ground with a “thud.” His once rounded head was now flattened. And the bone in my hand snapped in two with a crack.

That man had a really tough bone in his body.

“I’m sorry,” I said silently to Mop on the ground.

Then I covered my forehead, held my breath, and looked at the communicator. I nervously wondered, how could I hide it if he spoke to Mop again?

However, to my utter surprise, after a brief silence, a deep, chuckling voice came through:

“Well done.”

I stared blankly at that small, square metal communicator.

Was he talking to me? Did he guess what I just did?

I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm down.

I decided to remain silent, because he was probably just testing me.

However, I soon realized I was wrong; he had no need to test me at all.

He said, “Stay where you are; I’ll board the ship in five minutes.”