Maybe write a snippet about a human discovering they’ve been taken captive and are stuck in an exhibit at an alien zoo run by humanoid aliens who see humans as like gorillas or other apes?
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The pieces of the protagonist’s situation came to them, slowly, in the minutes after they regained consciousness.
They focused on the facts. They had to focus on the facts.
The ship had been attacked on a standard operation to the moon – humanoid creatures that were not human, their eyes too luminous, their teeth too sharp, their skin too hard so that nothing seemed to damage them. They did not react, gasping and falling to their knees as the protagonist’s small crew had, when all of the air sucked out into the dawning void of space.
They did not need to breathe, at least not like humans did.
The experimental com-chip fitted against the protagonist’s neural pathways had only been intended for human languages, but they’d been able to understand the aliens as they moved closer in the protagonist’s fading vision. The aliens had not been able to understand them.
Their strange faces had been lit with excitement.
The protagonist was in a large glass tank. It was carefully fitted with a system to ensure the flow of oxygen, so it was clear that the aliens knew that humans needed air. There likely was not air outside the tank was there?
(The were in a cage, they were in a cage, oh god they were in a cage.)
The protagonist pushed themselves, head aching, to sit.
They were not restrained, because they did not need to be.
The cage had a soft carpet under their bare body. They had been stripped of clothes, of weapons, of anything they could use to escape if they could somehow get past the oxygen problem. There were pillows and blankets dotted around; touches of homeliness, of care, of something intended to be more permanent.
The protagonist’s heart sank.
A door slid open in the wall, beyond the cage, and two of the aliens entered.
The protagonist drew back on instinct, knees curling to their chest, back hitting the wall furthest way. There was nowhere to go, though. The cage was in the centre of the space, visible from every side. They grabbed blindly at a blanket to cover themselves.
The chip in their ear crackled; translated, or tried to. The protagonist couldn’t be sure how much was direct and how much guesswork.
“A curious species,” the shorter one of them was saying. “Frequently volatile – difficult to bring in alive and very finnicky to care for – but look at it! Magnificent, isn’t it?”
A strangled sort of sound left the protagonist’s throat.
“They’re apparently quite clever, in their way,” the shorter alien continued. “They use tools and everything. But you have to be firm with them. They’ve got a very savage, hierarchical sort of culture, so you have to let them know who the boss is or they get confused and start acting out. It’s a shame we couldn’t get two of them, really. They’re sociable. We’ll need to ####-“ the comm crackled, unable to exactly pick out and translate the word, “it on the way. That’s what the #### said. Otherwise it’s not humane.”
The two aliens stopped on the other side of the glass, peering at them.
“They are quite pretty aren’t they?” the second one said after a long moment. “In a funny sort of way. So soft. So squishy. Do you reckon I’d be allowed to pet it? You said they needed ####.”
“Maybe when it’s domesticated. They bite.”
“Oh.”
The short one patted the tall one. “They’re sturdier than they look though,” the short one said. “I was talking to one of the doctors at the ####-“ the comm crackled, once again not finding the word. “They can break bone and be completely fine again after a few months!”
“That’s so cool!”
“Mm, mm. I know, right?” The shorter one was nodding. “The zoo has been trying to get hold of another one for months. Their planet is dying, so they’re pretty endangered if we don’t conserve them now, and the ### have started hunting them for their bones. With the whole healing thing they have going on, you know?”
The protagonist’s stomach clenched. Did they say…zoo? Was that accurate? It couldn't be.
Everyone on earth had been registering the mass disappearances, the strange lights in the sky, but everyone had sort of thought it was a hoax. Or a government conspiracy to try and tackle overpopulation.
“Barbaric,” the tall one said, before rapping on the glass.
The protagonist flinched. The two made some incomprehensible sound, a bit like wind chimes spinning in the breeze.
It was getting harder and harder to focus on the facts.
They’d really said zoo, hadn’t they?
“Just let me go.” The words burst out of them. “Let me go home, please. I won’t tell anyone anything. I – if you’re curious about humans, if you want to help, then maybe we can-“
“—What’s it saying?”
“It probably requires sustenance, or maybe to mate? They do that a lot apparently. It’s why they have so many problems. They’re practically insatiable. I heard it’s because they don’t live very long.”
The protagonist stopped talking, fists clenching at their sides.
“The ### will know,” the short alien said. “They’ll be so pleased. They’re already prepping for our arrival.”
“Kind of a shame to give it over so quickly,” the second alien said, still staring. “It would make a cute ship mascot.”
“They’re not pets,” the short one said. “They’re not house-broken. Just wait until it starts wailing and leaking, it’s unbearable.”
“Maybe one day.”
“Mm.”
The two did something with a machine near the cage, and the protagonist felt something hiss in the air above them. The scent of something sweet hit their nose. Drowsiness washed over them.
When they next came to, they were in another world entirely.