The General has christened him the Snake King, but Christine personally disapproved of the name. She saw nothing kingly in that king's behavior. It was a monster, plain and simple, albeit one that represented the pinnacle of alien potential, both physical and mental. It had killed Sergeant Jones when they had first discovered his nest, and would have murdered the General, too, were it not for a lucky shot with a stungun that had stunned the monster long enough for it to be retrieved alive. As it was, it had broken two of the General's ribs. Keeping something so dangerous on board the ship just to satisfy the chief scientist's curiosity struck Chrstine as idiocy bordering on the suicidal, but the commander had assented to his bold undertaking, and that was that.
At the very least, Christine had ensured that the Zoo was well-equipped to hold the serpent. Sometimes she thought that she should find some Schadenfreude in the doctor's experiments on Omega, but despite its monstrosity, she could derive no joy from its pain and imprisonment. It should be euthanized and dissected. But if the doctor could save a single human's life or shorten the war by a single day through his studies, then it was for the greater good, she reasoned. Didn't mean she liked it.
Christine crept past the fogged glass. Within, Omega stirred lazily, its pallid body slithering over itself. Its black eyes watched Christine's movements closely. She shuddered. The beast looked like an enormous python, with two thin, reptilian arms, and a spiked, cobra-like hood. Without its armor, it looked like nothing more than a cryptid, a beast forgotten by man and science. But she knew that its mind was as dangerous as any other alien's, probably more so. If the chief scientist's recovered notes were correct, Omega was more intelligent than any species yet encountered, including humanity.
"Get in, grab the notes, get out," Christine whispered to herself. She didn't want to spend a moment longer near that thing than necessary. She spied the datapad on the shelf where she had left it, its contents more valuable than anyone or anything on the base, besides the General himself: the research notes of her late father.
It had been he who had resurrected the base, turned an abandoned wreck into a mobile resistance base. It had been he, with the help of the General, who had turned them from a pitiful bunch of vandals and vigilantes into an actual rebellion against the alien overlords who had conquered their planet. Ever since his passing, the base had felt...empty. Like its soul was missing, as unscientific as that sounded. It was a heavy burden to succeed her father, but a necessary one. She would complete what he had started and restore humanity's freedom, or she would die trying.
She grabbed the datapad and turned towards the door. A sudden creak froze her in her steps. The glass cylinder was now entirely opaque with frost. A loud, thunderous thwump shook the room as Omega's tail struck the glass, sending the room's assortment of display screens shivering. Again, the beast struck, and this time, as his tail vanished into the mist, it left behind a crack that slowly crawled across the glass, the tiny clinkling of its passage seeming to echo through the otherwise silent room.
Christine ran, but the final blow smashed through the weakened glass, and a chunk of Omega's former cage struck her leg, knocking her to the ground. The datapad clattered to the floor and slid under one of the tables.
With a speed that seemed impossible for his size, Omega slithered out of the chamber. It looked at Christine, then the door. It darted towards it.
"I hope this is worth it," Christine thought. She slammed her hand onto the nearby emergency door lock. Eight inches of door slammed down, trapping Omega inside. With her. Perfect...
Omega tried to break through the door as it had the glass, but it was no use. Even it, with his hideous strength, couldn't so much as dent it. It turned back towards Christine with fury in his eyes. It approached slowly. Her leg was still bleeding. She tried to scrabble backwards, but she bumped up against a workbench. There was nowhere to hide from the monster.
Omega leaned towards her, his fangs bared, ready to strike. "Just wish I had done more," Christine thought, preparing herself for death. Would it hurt, as his teeth sank into her? Would it make it quick? Omega suddenly darted forward, wrapping its long, serpentine body around Christine's small frame, constricting her, pinning her arms to her body and crushing the air from her lungs as she gasped. It squeezed, but Christine didn't even have the air left to scream. It felt like it was going to turn her bones into powder.
She opened her eyes and looked into the monster's face. She wasn't going to die a coward. She spat.
The creature hissed, but loosened its constriction. His face approached Christine's, but instead of a bite, Omega delivered a lick instead, its tongue caressing her cheek. She shuddered. Was it
tasting
her? Was she going to end her life inside this beast's stomach? How long would she remain alive? Would she suffocate first, or would she feel the stomach acid dissolving her?
From beneath, Omega's tail wriggled its way under her shirt and vest. She gasped as its cold, muscular flesh slithered across her stomach, up between her breasts, too small to justify wearing a bra. Christine's eyes widened as, with one single, forceful movement, Omega used its tail to snap through her top like it was nothing. The tip of its tail curled around one of her exposed, petite breasts, gripping it softly. The creature's gaze fixated on Christine's bare chest as she struggled, helplessly trying to cover herself up, as she finally realized the monster's true desire.
It made sense in a way, she reasoned, retreating into logic as she tried to escape reality. It was a common joke—albeit one based in fact—that even resistance soldiers found the serpentine aliens attractive. It made sense that the attraction went both ways. Why wouldn't the aliens find humans attractive? There were certainly a number of human and alien couples. Their overlords encouraged that sort of thing.
