The black troopers vaporized Agent Grey, giving Marco no reason to doubt their complicity—yet he remained prudent, and with no intention of falling entirely in their arms. No one better than himself knew what the Zigs were capable of, or what lengths they could go in order to fool him.

Marco’s train of thought was suspended when—without a feeling of pain or pleasure—he fully dematerialized from the flaming corridor. During his transfer and on his arrival, he experienced sensations very different to those of the Phoenix’s trans-phase shifter. There was a considerably longer time before his reconstitution, though it occurred without any of the dizzying inconveniences.

When he thought to be back in one piece and one place, he was baffled—everything around him was white! The only solid thing was his own body, and as he turned around the ground blended in with the white sky all the way to infinity. That void wasn’t hot or cold, but Marco was well footed, walking in a random direction trying to spot something, or someone.

A glitch, and he found himself looking at a figure materializing close by. Its many parts came together like a three-dimensional puzzle before it started to sway its hips. Once his brain realized what it was looking at, Marco goggled and blinked twice. She was bipedal and reptilian, with no tail and more human features than those of the very lizard-like Eneheans. More or less his size, smallish purple scales covered her whole naked body—she had no breasts or hair though was so glaringly female.

“Who are you?” uttered Marco, once the bald reptilian woman got close to him.

She had beautiful green snake eyes and a cheeky grin. She lifted one of her thin hands to rest it lightly on Marco’s shoulders. She pierced him with her gaze, eyeing him up and down in replying. “Stop, Marco, and let us take it from here. Let me start by helping you out of that horrible spacesuit.”

She whetted her thin lips with a circular motion of her forked tongue. Marco let her move in even closer—she brought her hand down his side and crossed over his back with it, inviting him to turn around.

When Marco did he was awestruck—there was his own bed, nothing but his bed in literal blankness.

“Please sit down, I’ll unfasten it for you,” said the sultry purple woman, but Marco no longer glanced back as she stood beside him and they both faced the end of the bed.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“And I need not to answer it,” replied she. And in a totally unexpected way she threw herself over the bed and landed on it with a little bounce. She nimbly turned over it and spread her legs, so she could see him through them. Her pussy was wet and she ran her fingertips over it.

“Where is Kalexis? Is she safe?”

That reptilian woman took her gaze off Marco, and sighed. “Don’t worry about her. Sit down, let me take your spacesuit off,” she insisted.

With all the excitement going on, Marco had yet to satisfy himself, gathering steam for the moment he’d have a chance to be intimate with Kalexis. He wondered why, after being apparently rescued from his captors, he was making the acquaintance of an alien so clearly bent on tantalizing him. She closed her legs and rested with them crossed, sitting in the middle of the bed. Still afraid she would jump him, Marco sat on the edge so she could begin to unfasten his space suit. He heard the buckles release one by one before she unsealed the fastening on his back. While she was doing it, Marco realized what she was trying to say by introducing herself unclothed.

“The Zigs can’t see us in here,” he said, breaking the silence.

“That’s right.”

He could free his torso from the spacesuit, making its topmost part flop beside him over the blankets. She was sitting behind him with her legs crossed when she wrapped her purple arms around his waist.

“I find you very attractive, Marco,” she said, and Marco felt queasy.

Marco twisted his bare shoulders and turned his head back so to meet her acid green eyes—she wasn’t lying. He smiled an embarrassed smile and looked ahead and away while she continued.

“That’s why I was chosen to take care of you.”

Marco tried to recall what he knew of the Pranksters but couldn’t focus with such a distraction. “I’m pleased to meet you, but where are we? Can you explain what’s going on?” Marco could tell she was disappointed by his lack of interest.

“I told you, you don’t have to worry anymore.”

“But I do worry!” Marco ran his fingers back and through his long hair.

“I envy you,” said pretty purple, saddened. “You do love her very much.”

Marco stood up from his bed and walked a step, dragging half of his red spacesuit, before turning around to show the alien woman his hairless chest. “What is happening on the Nova?”

She crept ahead to sit on the edge of the bed with her head lowered, then a light brown tunic with printed insignias simply appeared on her. “We are fighting a battle to rescue the other prisoners.”

“So there really are others,” commented Marco.

She got up from the bed that disappeared, leaving just the two surrounded by the blankness.