Jenna woke up experiencing a number of sensations at once. The first one was that she couldn’t breathe. She was coughing and sputtering. The second thing she felt was a feeling like she was lying naked on a slightly coarse beach with her feet in the water and when she opened her eyes, nothing she saw made sense to her.

Above her was a black sky, but light was shining all around her. It was lower. The light was lower, in all four directions, and white. Was she inside? But her feet were splashing in water and she was on a beach.

Then she realized that the feeling that she was lying on a beach, completely naked, was exactly what was going on.  

“Jenna,” Sardius said in her ear. “Can you hear me?”

“I can hear you,” she said, putting her hand to her ear. “What’s going on?”

“On our way back to Earth, we crashed on Magatidus. It was lucky.”

Jenna knew what had happened… sort of. She had sent Armen to Octavia Three to pick up Lucy. Once Lucy was fit to travel, Jenna got on a pod of her own and though she was traveling in a different pod apart from Armen and Lucy, they were all still going to Earth on the same spacecraft. Jenna had been put to sleep in the pod for the journey the same way she had been before and that was the last thing she could remember.

“Could we skip to the part where you explain exactly where I am, right now?” she asked waspishly as she covered her breasts with her arms and crushed her legs together.

“You’re in a lizard tank. It’s normally used as a breeding ground for edible lizards as part of the food supply for the Octavia population of Magatidus. This looks to be a new one, but there’s a problem. The lizards that are normally kept in a tank like this require a lot less oxygen than you. There isn’t strong enough air circulation in here to even let you breathe all the oxygen that’s in here. You need more. Over to your left, against the tank wall, there are three tubes. The one that has no markings on it is the oxygen. You need to go there, sit next to it, and make a fuss. If you look like you’re distressed, they’ll turn up the oxygen.”

“They’re going to see me?” Jenna squeaked.

“They’re Octavians. Not as developed as Favel, but they’re not Adamis. They’re only as curious about your anatomy as you’d be over the anatomy of a baby octopus. Besides, octopuses don’t wear clothes. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“Why am I naked in the first place?” she asked, as she tried to spot the tubes in the wall Sardius mentioned.

“As I said, you crashed. Magatidus is ninety-three percent ocean. Your pod did well in the crash and it didn’t break, but you didn’t wake up. I sent out distress calls, but the signals were lost in the storms. You floated on the surface for three days before an electrical current hit your pod and fried the electrical components. The floatation devices detached and you fell. The pod filled with water and you would have died if the Octavians here hadn’t rescued you. Considering the storms on this planet, we’re extremely lucky they were able to find you at all.”

“Lucky,” she said quietly as she looked around for something to wrap around herself, but there were only big flat rocks and hollow logs.  

“They took your clothes off because I asked them to,” Sardius said like he wished he didn’t have to admit it.

“What? Why?” she hollered.

“Your body temperature was dangerously low after being in that icy water. If they hadn’t cut your clothes off and put you under these heat lamps, you would have died.”

Jenna groaned and pulled her knees up to her chest.

“Look, Jenna, I know this is really difficult for you because Adamis are so incredibly modest about certain parts of their bodies being seen, but there’s really nothing for you to be shy about. There isn’t another Adamis on this planet. Think about all the times you’ve stood in front of a fish tank and watched a bunch of naked fish swim around.”

“Naked fish?” she wheezed.

“Most organisms in the universe do not wear clothing. You guys are the weird ones. Back on Earth, how many times were you self-conscious about taking your clothes off in front of your cat? This is like that.”

“Ugh.”

“Jenna! Focus. I need you to stand on your own two feet and walk over to that oxygen hose. I have sent them three messages that the oxygen in this tank is not sufficient for you, but my signals keep being interrupted. The storms here are that serious and I can’t be manually linked to their system without leaving your ear. You can do this. Get up!”

She didn’t want to, but the sound of Sardius’ voice was grounding and he was right. Each breath in was not enough.  

“You’re sure no one is going to see me?” she said, putting a hand between her legs and keeping the other arm pinned to her chest.

“To be clear, we want the octopi taking care of you to see you. They don’t think anything is weird about this.”

As Jenna got closer to the tank wall, she saw that the surface of the wall was like a dark mirror. “And you?” she asked softly. “Can you see me?”

Sardius snorted pleasantly. “You can relax. Not only am I a microscopic octopus riding around in your ear, but I’ve also seen you naked already.”

“When?” she exclaimed.

“I’m keeping track by scratching little notches in my wall. We’re already past ten,” he joked.

“Is all this that amusing for you?” she asked, finding the oxygen tube he was talking about and leaning against the wall of the tank next to it.

“It’s a little amusing,” he chuckled before his voice changed intonation. “Frankly, I’m pleased you’re breathing. It was a close one. This was a good planet for us to crash onto because it was inhabited, but it was also a difficult one for a hundred reasons.”

“If I’d died, would you have been able to jettison out of your pearl and have a new life as a microscopic octopus on Magatidus?”

“No,” he said slowly.

“Are you saying you would have died with me?”

“No. I would have gone on living the rest of my life. Alone. Without you.”

The mood had darkened, and Jenna, who just a few minutes before had been so concerned about being seen naked, was suddenly humbled by what could have happened if Sardius had not been there.  

She wanted to thank him for saving her life, but when she opened her mouth, she couldn’t bear to say something that hinted that the two of them could die together. Instead, she rambled the question, “So, when did you see me naked?”

“Oh, absolutely any time you take your clothes off. You’re changing your outfit? I see everything. You’re showering? Everything. You don’t have to be shy, I’m an octopi.”

She chuckled at his rhyme. “Are there that many mirrors in my rooms?”

“I don’t see you through mirrors most of the time. Most of the time, I’m using a password that overrides the security system in your palace.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that I’m blocking both the Adamis and the Octavians from seeing you through the room cameras in your more private moments. You deserve some privacy when you shove that sperm-shaped piece of cotton up your--”

“It’s a tampon,” she interrupted.  

“Oh, is that what it’s called? Hold on… an Octavian is paying attention to you. Put your face closer to the tube.”

Jenna did and a flush of pure air hit her in the face. “We did it.”

“You did it,” he said. His voice sounded calm and mellow.  

Jenna closed her eyes and let the air flow over her. “Are you sure you’re a baby-sized octopus? Sometimes, you really sound like a man.”

“If I were a man, would I be relaxed about seeing you naked?”

She laughed. “No.”

“How would I act?”

“We’re really going for that, huh? Pretending you’re a man all the way?” she asked with a dash of wit.

“I don’t know how long it will be until you’re rescued. It might be a while. I need to entertain you. Besides, there are three tubes next to you. One is for oxygen. The other two are for food and water. The food is likely to be less than ideal.”

Jenna saw the water flowing down, but the last tube had nothing coming from it and nothing happening around it.

“What kind of food are they going to give me?” she asked hopefully.

All at once, a pile of wet, slithering worms fell through the tube and landed on the sand. Jenna screamed.  

Sardius was immediately in her ear. “It’s okay. Back away from them. It will work in the same way it did with the oxygen. I’ll keep sending them messages about what a woman like you would like to eat, but there is a good chance they won’t have anything to feed you that you will think is an acceptable meal, but they might. In the meantime, you just need to get away from the worms and act like you’d never eat them.”

Jenna scrambled to a hollow log and got inside. Lucky for her, it was large enough that she could sit inside and lean against the wall.  

Thinking rapidly, she said to Sardius. “If no one comes to rescue us, and they don’t have better food than that, I really will have to eat those worms, won’t I?”

“For now, do what you’re comfortable with. I won’t let you die, so my advice will prioritize your comfort and then your survival. Ultimately, it may come down to that. Try not to be flustered. Eating a worm may not be that bad. The reason worms came down the meal slot is that’s what the lizards who are normally housed in pens like this eat.”

“What were you saying before about entertaining me?” she said, rubbing her arms and brushing off sand.

“Oh, I have a variety of entertainments I can perform if you desire it. Music? Novels? Jokes? Riddles? Puzzles? I can read or play anything I have in my data banks to help us pass the time. I have sent a distress call to Octavia Prime, though there is a good chance they already know what happened when the ship went down. Congratulations on surviving the first attempt on your life, but it may be some time before anyone comes to rescue us.”

“As long as you’re here, I’m sure it will be fine,” she said stubbornly.  

“How would you like me to entertain you?”

She hesitated. “I’m not sure.”