Glossary:
Ahhh-ghizhhhhhhh - a calming sound to soothe
huhn huhn - the sound of their laughter
bringing back of wrist to touch underside of chin - meanings 1.) I cherish you 2.) acknowledges someones youth
Shahn - No
Coupling - twin; dual birth
Shellssss - bodies
Deitssska - their deity
Zzhoh-PLAH - Incoming attack; an explanation that kind of means “here we go”
huhn huhn - the sound of their laughter
bringing back of wrist to touch underside of chin - meanings 1.) I cherish you 2.) acknowledges someones youth
Shahn - No
Coupling - twin; dual birth
Shellssss - bodies
Deitssska - their deity
Zzhoh-PLAH - Incoming attack; an explanation that kind of means “here we go”
Bella's POV ~
I sprint through the doorway of the kitchen, turn left down a hallway, come to a four-way intersection, and ... for crying out loud, I’m not even driving. In my head, I start reciting eenie meenie miney mo, but I hear foot steps behind me so I just choose to go straight. I think this is the right way, the way to him, BANO, Edwaird, whatever.
They are much faster than I am and catch up with me; I’m not even close to him, but I feel like I’m going into hysterics. Why are they stopping me? He is hurt, and I have to go! I just have to.
“Shahn,” Essssme says, gently gripping my shoulder to stop me. I move to pull away, but she makes that noise that turns me into goo.
“Ahhh-ghizhhhhhhh. Calllm,
And I do. I calm to slush in Emmeet’s arms once again.
Damn, I need to learn how to do that.
They carry me down a hall, and we pass through the room with the huge window again. This time the space sky is much darker than it was when I walked through here with Ah-lisssss to relieve myself.
Emmeet carries me through a set of intricately carved red doors and into a lounge area. The rest follow behind, and damn, once again the room is lined with those fucking kidney beans. I’m going to have to ask about that.
The room is a myriad of colors; I swear that Lucky Charms dude must have puked in here. My mouth waters a little at the thought of the cereal that I will probably never eat again. It isn’t my favorite by any means, but it still holds a place close to my heart. The top cereal spot in my heart will eternally belong to Golden Grahams. However, I need to stop thinking about that before my stomach growls again, and I freak Emmeet out.
Emmeet walks over to a plush magenta-colored chair and gently sets me down in it. He walks to the couch adjacent and lies down on his stomach - probably so he doesn’t squish the baby. A maniacal giggle escapes me, but they don’t freak out this time. I imagine they are growing used to all the sounds I make that are odd or threatening to them.
The others file into the room and all take seats in random spots of the room. Essssme and Carlisss sit close together, and Roe-salie takes her usual protective stance over Emmeet. Jasssspeer fiddles with something over in the corner near what appears to be a bookshelf, but is not used for books, while Ah-lisssss takes the chair beside mine, fidgeting with an invisible seam on the sleeve of her garment.
As usual, Essssme speaks first, and I learn why as she begins to tell me of their family and their origin, of their home, and of why Edwaird (BANO!) is not hurt, but actually terrific right now.
I can’t shake my worry, or figure out why I’m so worried about him.
oOo
Esssssme POV ~
It isssss time that the human female learned more about usssss. Edwaird hassss begun the mating call, ssssso it issss decided,
It will be besssst to ssstart with the beginning.
“
Ssshe leans back in the chair, and I am privy to noticccce the way that Ah-lissss appearssss protective of the human female. It is mossst appropriate in consssideration of her closssenesssss with her coupling**.
“Our tribe ssssserves one purpose. That purposssse is to aid our home planet, Sssssisla, in its protection. The individual tribessss of Sssssisla take ressssponsibility for varioussss occupationsss which are given freely to provide a higher quality of longevity for our people.”
“My tribe, the Cul-len Tribe, isssss resssponsible for the most important occupation upon all of Sssisla, and that issss our home planet’ssss protection from rebelliousssss tribessss.”
“Ssssisla is perhapssss the mosssst aged planet known. I’ve done ressssearch through our databassse and located much information about your planet Ea-rth. It issss a young planet, and your life cccycle issss not impressssive. Your aging expectancy topssss out at approximately 100 years, which equates 3 querassss for us. Our age is meassssured in this manner, and we carry out up to 12 querassssss, more if our shellsss** remain healthy.”
“Thessse rebellion tribessss have been invading planet after planet in our galaxy, asssss well as others, sssscouring the land and taking whatever they prefer...if they possessss the brawn to do ssssso. They have attempted hundredsssss of attackssss on Ssssisla for the duration of our charge, and after we are gone, they will continue.”
“Well, what do they want from you? How many times have they attacked, and if I may ask, how old are you?”
“Huhn, huhn.” I tap the rear of my wrisssst to my chin.
“They desire our deathssss above all, after that, they want to usssse up the resourcesss our land and home planet provide. They wishhhh to bleed it until it crackssss, then bleed further ssstill before they move onto the next planet. They are parassssites. They have never reached Ssssisla, because we have alwayssss defeated them, four timesssss. Each time they attack, it takes a great length of time to conquer them, and they sssslither away, only to rebuild and attack again. We have great armor and great weaponssss. They have never been a match for ussss.”
“Carlissss is six querassss, as am I. However, I am earlier in my ssssixth quera. Emmeet, Roe-salie and Jasssspeer are all in their mid-third quera while Ah-lisssss and Edwaird are in the beginning of their ssssecond quera. With the mated pair of Ah-lissss and Jasssspeer, it agessss Ah-lissss a bit more. Edwaird and Ah-lissss are of the ssssame birthing, but Edwaird is behind becaussssse he is not fully mated.
Bell-a’sssss pillar brow risessss, and I let her ssspeak this time. “Fully mated? What do you mean fully mated? Has he begun to mate with another of your kind?”
Panic beginsss to sssseep into her voice, and Ah-lissss leanssss closse to her head and buzzessss in her hearing sssshell. Bell-a’ssss skin ripples ever sssso sssslightly, but ssshe calmsss. Again, I explain.
“You are upset, child, and I believe that I understand the reassssson behind your upssssetting. You have feelingssss for our Edwaird.”
Bell-a’ssss face changesss a little, and she asks, “Why would BAN-Edwaird follow me to my death place? He just met me.”
“You are hissss fated mate, child. Ah-lissss hass deemed it true, and all things are are sssshown through Ah-lissss. It issss the will of Deitssska.”**
Before I am able to continue, the blue light near the room’s entrance illuminatesss. Emmeet sssees it at the sssssame time that I do, and he leapsss up from his chair. “Re-belssss,” he ssscreechess and runsss toward the door. All at once, the ressst of my tribe is on our feet and running after Emmeet, moving through the corridorsss quickly toward the control room. Behind usss,
Thisss comforts me, that
oOo
Bella’s POV ~
I pace around the room with all of the satelites and decide that it must be some kind of defense or control room. Emmeet sits at the large front window, steering the ship if you will, with Carlisss in the co-pilot’s seat. Esme and Roe-salie tap on nearly invisible specks on the glass maps that sit vertically in front of them. I can’t decide if they come from the ceiling or from the base that sits below them.
I stop to the left of Ah-lisss, who continuously makes circles on her temples with her fingers and keeps her eyes shut. Essssme and Roe-salie speak quickly, and it doesn’t take me long to notice that while the men are piloting, it is the women who direct them in the act of this battle. It intrigues me. I want to ask Ah-liss why, but she looks too focused. I don’t want to interrupt whatever it is she is doing.
At first, the attack seems mild. Every once in a while I hear Esssssme say something in exasperation, then Roe-salie yell something, and all will be quiet again. This seems to go on for a while, and through most of it, Ah-liss remains in the same pose. I’m beginning to worry a little bit until she jumps from the chair she has been sitting in, and yells, “Zzhoh-PLAH!”
The force of her voice startles me, causing me to jump.
Everything gets crazy then, and a couple of minutes later, the entire ship shakes with the force of an attack. I’m thrown off of my feet, falling to the floor as the ship heaves out of control.
“
When we turn down the last hallway, I realize where we are, and my tummy flutters a little. We slow down now that we are outside of BANO’s door, and she grips my hand once we stand just outside of his room.
“Edwaird will sssleep. He musst sleep to endure his transssition to the mating phase. Pleassse, be careful with him. I promissse to retrieve you the ssssoonest I am able,” Ah-lissss explains. She seems to think on something a minute, then tips her forehead to mine and rests it there for a second. She gently pulls away, waves her hand across BANO’s door sensor, and flees back toward the control room.
The door of BANO’s room begins to slide shut, and I squeeze through before I can’t fit. As Ah-lisss said, he sleeps upon his massive bed, tangled in the sheets and whimpering every once in a while. I look around to find something to do, but the ship jolts several times, and I decide that sleeping through the worst of this might be the best idea.
I walk over to the fucking kidney-bean shaped couch on the wall farthest from where BANO...Edwaird sleeps and sit down. It feels kind of spongy, and I sink into it a little. It isn’t so bad. I lay down, but I can’t get comfortable, as it’s too spongy. I stand up and begin to pace the room until the ship shudders once again. I’m thrown from my feet, landing at the foot of the bed, and wait for the ship to even out before I attempt to stand.
He speaks then, and though he isn’t awake, I can’t shake the heat that slices through my core at the sound of his velvety voice speaking my name. It’s music to my ears, like a symphony, all the angels heaven can muster harmonizing in a beautiful chord just for me. The sound moves all throughout my body, making me feel as though white light has sprouted out through my toes, fingertips and through the top of my head.
I feel my head begin to go fuzzy when he moans and says my name again, and I can’t help it when my legs give out on me, causing me fall on the bed. I feel whoozy, and for a second, I think I’m dreaming. All of a sudden, BANO is above me, with eyes closed, and scoops me up into his arms, moving toward the head of the bed. He lays me down, then nestles into my side, resting his face in the crook of my neck. I feel his breath on my neck, and I have to chant in my head, Ah-lisss’ words. He needs to sleep, he needs to sleep. So, I close my eyes and do my best to level my breathing, unaware of when I finally fall asleep.
My body floats on a plane of inner existence. Ripple waves course around, through, and over me. I feel a pulsing within me, and see it’s luxurious color. At first look, it is a royal blue going on purple, but the pulse grows stronger and stronger and the color shifts and within it, I see white light that swirls to yellow and turns to a bright green. The bright green morphs to an emerald green, and this is where the color stays as I swim in its richness. This color: the smell of rain on a warm spring day, the feel of freshly cut grass under my feet, Charlie’s smile after I’ve baked him cookies.
The color begins to change again, but not visually. The feeling within me is what changes and suddenly, the green is surrounded by white with a dot of black in the center. Eyes surrounded by long, thick lashes. Reddish hair atop the head of a beautiful man. My BANO, my Edwaird. I want to call his name, I want my voice to shiver along his spine and weave its way into his nerves so that he will always feel me there, within him. I want his fingers to know every part of my body without ever needing to look upon it.
His body moves over mine, and we tumble, round and round and round in our infinity. I will no longer be only me. To be only me would be utter loneliness. I feel my spirit travel through my finger tips and join his as I touch him. When his fingers gently grip onto my arms, I feel all the beauty of him enter me, residing in a space that my heart carved out just for him.
The feeling is intense, and all through out my trunk, finger and toes, I feel heat. Heat in my ears as he leans in to whisper something to me. I have no idea what he says; I cannot hear his voice, but the sensation of his breath upon my ear is the most sensual thing I have ever felt in my life. I lift my hand up to trail the shell of his ear, and his head tips back, ecstasy written plainly on his face.
Our chests rise and fall together, quickly, and I begin to pant. We no longer tumble through air, but lay upon the greenest grass I’ve ever laid eyes on. I see yellow speckles at the tips of each individual blade of grass, and suddenly, Edwaird hovers over me. His mouth makes the shape of my name, but I cannot hear it, rather feel it reverberate through my chest. Sparks of lust lap through me, and I scream in a silent cry as I fall over the edge into oblivion. Edwaird’s head tips back, and he lets go of a silent yet thunderous groan that pulls a second orgasm from me. I feel the rumble of it inside of my ribcage, it almost feels as though it moves apart to make room for him.
I’m abruptly woken from the best dream I’ve ever fucking had in my life as I feel my body get thrown against the wall next to the bed. It knocks the air out of me, and I begin to panic, but see Edwaird’s eyes open and looking at me. The fact that I’ve called him Edwaird and not BANO does not go unnoticed in my head, but now, since that dream, he is only Edwaird. My Edwaird. I open my mouth to ask him what is going on, but I can’t say anything as I feel his fingers trace my lips. They begin to tingle, and after only a few moments of this, his hand falls back to the bed. With his eyes drifting shut once more, my name is a whisper falling from his mouth.
The ship jolts hard. This time I fly upward, hitting my head on the wall that is just a few feet above us, then fall back to the bed. Since Edwaird was already in a prone position, his body only lifts up slightly, leaving him to his heavy slumber. My vision swims with spots as I lay on the bed, trying to come through the battering to my body. It’s of no use because my vision goes black, and I remember nothing.
Through the haze of a dreamless sleep, there is a fuzzy scenario that plays out in front of me. Surely I must be dreaming this, but my limbs feel heavy, like I’m awake but groggy.
The door to Edwaird’s room slides open, and Carlissss is about to take a step through, with Esssssme following. His foot stops mid-air, and he does not come all the way in. Esssme begins to speak rapidly, but in a hushed tone, and behind she and Carlissss, I see Ah-lissss stopping abruptly.
Carlisssss slowly backs away from the door and down the hallway, never turning his back from the door. The second the two women step through the doorway, something inside of me breaks, and I feel the urge to stand over my Edwaird, bear my teeth at the two women, and make them leave.
“He is mine!” I spit at them through my teeth.
Esssme buzzes through her teeth, but for some reason, it doesn’t work on me this time. It infuriates me, and I feel a rumble move up from my throat and escape my mouth. A menacing growl comes out of me, and both women are taken aback by it. They quickly recover and Ah-lisss grabs some kind of a blanket from the kidney-bean couch. They stalk closer, and I feel more threatened the closer they come.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I know they won’t hurt him, or me for that matter, but whatever protective emotion I’m feeling right now, I can’t put aside. I hope they realize I mean no harm.
They stalk closer yet, and I growl once more. Edwaird stirs a little, and I look down at him. That is when Ah-lisss pounces on me. My head is covered with the blanket, and they both buzz loudly at me. I can’t fight their combined efforts, and I fade.
In The Deepest Space
Chapter 3 - Milk Bath
LISTEN to this Chapter
Glossary:
Down this red hall, the walls are red, the carpet is red, the ceiling is red, but at the end of it, a shiny, silver door. It is not red. The lights are all red, but the door is not. A fist floats up from nowhere and makes a soundless knock, and a scream is let forth.
I wake sitting straight up in my bed and screaming a silent scream. My mouth is open in an O, but I can’t speak. My chest rises and falls, and I slump back to the bed, realizing it was a dream. Just a dream. Not even a frightening dream, but disturbing? Yes. I hear movement outside of my door and think about getting up to inspect, but I am a guest here. It would be rude to go wandering into places where I may not be welcome.
A voice cries out, my name being carried through the air, and the need in the tenor of that voice hits me squarely in the chest. I jump out of the bed and run to the door, waving my hand across the censor, but the door does not open. I try again and again, but the door doesn’t budge. I’ve been locked in. I shuffle back to the bed, feeling tired and useless and drift off to a dreamless sleep.
An ocean, red.
Tingling lips.
His lips. Oh sweet baby Jesus, his lips.
My door slides open, and I hear low voices speaking before I open my heavy lidded eyes and see anyone. I feel like I’ve been sleeping for weeks straight or perhaps only minutes. The three women in the family all enter my room and walk over to my bed. Roe-salie wrinkles her nose and walks out of the room, and I wonder what I have done to offend her this time.
Esssme also wrinkles her nose, saying, “Ssssstahn.”
I have no idea what she is saying, and I look to Ah-lissss, whose face tells me she agrees.
I look back to Essssme, asking her, “Stahn?”
She wrinkles her nose at me and taps it with her fingertip. It clicks then. She’s telling me I stink. Lovely.
I pick my arm up, and as unladylike as it is, I smell my armpit. Yep, I fucking reek. “I stink.”
They look at me in confusion. “Smell, stink, stahn,” I say, and pinch my nose to further my explanation.
“Ssssssmell, sssssss-tink,” Essssssme tries out the words, then nods in accomplishment.
The two of them pull me from the bed, and I have no choice but to walk with them to a small ante-chamber, the bathroom. I have never in my life been so excited at the sight of a bathtub. It is a long, white, perfect square, and I cannot see where the water comes out since there is no faucet, but I have no doubt that there will be water in it soon.
Esssssme moves behind me and begins to unzip my suit. I feel frozen in place, not knowing whether I should tell her that I can undress myself, unsure if that would be rude because of the courtesy they are bestowing on me. I ponder the notion too long and forget that I’m being undressed by a female alien instead becoming mezmerized by the way the water fills the bathtub. The water comes up from the bottom, from slits along the side that I can’t even see. It must flow forcefully, because in just moments, the tub is filled. I stand naked before the three other women.
I look down into the bathtub to see that it is not water, like I am expecting, but a milky substance that has a very slight pink hue to it.
“What is that?” I ask, pointing at the liquid so they understand what I’m asking.
Esssssme pulls my hair from my neck, wrapping it up in a cloth that resembles muslin, and answers, “It is the nectar of the Ssssoom. It hassss many healing qualitiessssss that will aid you in your recovery. Your ssssshell hasss experienced a taxing hardsssship.”
She grips my right hand, and Ah-lissss takes the other, both pulling me toward the bath. I don’t argue with them, because my body is achey, and I did almost die.
One leg goes in, and the other. The hands holding onto my hands help me ease in until I am finally submerged up to my shoulders. I don’t notice it at first, the temperature of the liquid is neither warm or cold, but the same as my skin’s temperature. Slowly, it begins to heat up. It warms and warms until I feel like I’m wrapped in an electric blanket. Tingling starts in my toes and fingers, then travels up my legs and arms, when it reaches the trunk of my body. It feels more like a pulsing than a tingle. The pulsing makes my eyes heavy, and I worry that I’m having an adverse reaction to whatever they’ve put me in. I may be allergic or something. I want to panic, tell them that something is wrong, but my tongue feels heavy and bulbous in my mouth. My eyes slide shut, and I float once again.
I see the green of his eyes, the golden bronze of his hair, the holes behind his ear. He chants my name over and over in his adorable alien accent: “Bell-a,Bell Bell
I want to seek him, find him and do many unmentionable things to him.
Colors dance around me, all unrecognizable as they swirl into one another making different colors while still remaining their true color. They all fade to a velvety plum pigment, and I can almost feel the texture in it. It gets closer and closer until I am wrapped in it, and it is warm and soft - ever so soft.
I wake up at the sound of a woosh and quickly sit up, noticing that I am in bed once again. I look around for an indicator of the time, but there is none. Essssme and Ah-liss stand at the door, looking at me expectantly, and I quickly move to get out of the bed. I lose my head a little, getting dizzy when I move to fast, and sway toward the floor, but the two women are over to catch me before I can hit the floor.
“Oh, sorry. Or, um, sa-ahn. I’m sorry,” I mumble.
Esssme lets out a sound that I would consider a chuckle, and I give her a rueful smile, remembering not to show my teeth.
“It issss the time for your nourishhhment,Bell
I expect them to jump away from me in terror, because that seems to be the thing they do when my body performs normal function or when I try to seem nice and thankful. Instead, they both look at my tummy curiously.
Ah-lisss finally asks, “Does ssssssomething reside within you?”
I giggle a little but keep it as quiet as possible, take a deep breath, then answer Ah-liss. “No. I’m hungry, and my stomach is growling to further express my hunger.”
“Hunger?” Ah-lissss asks.
I nod my head at both of them, put my hand up to my mouth and pretend that I’m taking a bite of food, mimicing chewing. I gulp nothing down, then say, “Eat.”
“Eat,” Essssme replies, and I nod at her.
Ah-lissss copies the word, and while they dress me in clothes resembling theirs, they practice my English words. As we walk down the corridor, they request new words from me, and so I teach them words that I can use some kind of charade gesture to help explain what they are. This goes on until we come to a room that almost resembles a normal kitchen, except for the utensils and cookware.
The rest of the Alien family is sitting around another fucking kidney bean-shaped table and eating. BANO is nowhere to be seen, and I wonder if he is alright, worrying a little. The two women sit me in a chair at the table, and I see that it is the last chair. It is BANO’s chair, and I notice Roe-salie eyeing me. Emmeet says something to her and draws her attention from me.
Carlissss is to my left and turns to look at me. “Are you feeling in better health,Bell
“Yes! So very much. That milk bath worked wonders,” I tell him, and it’s the truth. I feel so much better than I had before the bath.
From behind a long island, or partition, Esme corrects me, “Ssssstahn. Not meelk,Bell
I look from her, to Ah-lisss to Roe-salie, confusedly. “But, it felt like milk, kind of. If it wasn’t milk, what was it?”
Roe-salie and Ah-lisssss look at each other, then to Essssme and back to me. Essssme comes out from behind the counter and over to the table, placing a bowl of some soupy mixture in front of me.
“Asss I’ve sssaid, it is the nectar of the Ssssssoom. The sssseed. Hisss esssssence,” Essssme says, sitting down in her seat on the other side of Carlisssss, then ladling a spoon full of the soup into her mouth.
She slurps it a little, and the sound of it makes something in my brain click. Seed. Essence. I look down into my bowl, and although it’s not the same color, it is the same texture. The fact that it is a liquid makes me want to puke my guts out.
I’ve recently bathed in the jizz of some fucking space creature. Just fucking wonderful.
My stomach churns, and I think I’m going to throw up. Actually, I know I am, but before I do, a horrible, painful, terrifying scream travels through the ship. At once, I know that it is coming from him.
Esssssme and Ah-lissss jump up at once and yell, “Edwaird.”
I yell, “BANO!” All eyes fall on me, and I begin to run.
Chapter 3 - Milk Bath
LISTEN to this Chapter
Glossary:
Bowsh - cut it out
Shahn - NO!
Soom - a horse-like creature
Sa-ahn - sorry
xhuh-xhuh - more of a sound then a word, kind of like a breathing in sound, but it is the slang for intercourse.
Shahn - NO!
Soom - a horse-like creature
Sa-ahn - sorry
xhuh-xhuh - more of a sound then a word, kind of like a breathing in sound, but it is the slang for intercourse.
Bella's POV ~
With the door open, it is so, so, so much more intense, maybe more than I can handle. It’s like I’ve snorted a pure concentration of liquid SEX. If I could capture this feeling of euphoria into pill form, I’d make millions. Yeah, yeah, there is such a thing as ecstasy, but I don’t think it could ever compare to how I feel right this fucking second.
I have to look away, because if I don’t, I’m going to attack him, and since I’m a guest on this ship, I don’t think that would be the best idea. Even so, he looks like he wants to attack me too.
From behind me, I hear several sets of footsteps, but my attention is quickly drawn away from that to the beautiful being in front of me when he begins to growl. This growl he emits is both terriffic and terrible at the same time. Terrific because it creates a tidal wave of sensation inside of me. My body warms to the point of sweating, and my nipples harden; I fucking get damp between my legs. Needless to say, I worry that they will be able to detect these...feelings going on inside of me. But seriously, what the hell is going on with me. Why should I feel turned on by a growl?
I hear more footsteps behind me and even louder growling in front of me. Beautiful Alien Number One seems to be growling at his own family. Ah-liss holds her hand up at the on-comers behind me, and she turns to look at “BANO.”
“Bowsh!” Ah-lissss exclaims and BANO immediately stops. The rest of his family behind me has stopped several feet away and murmur amongst themselves quietly. Ah-lissss gives BANO a look that says “relax asswipe” and walks over to the others.
Unsure of what to do or where I should stand, I remain where I am, studying my socked feet. I have no idea what they’ve done with my suit and my boots, but they’ve left my socks on my feet. I pretend my feet are the most fascinating things I’ve ever seen in my life, while my body yearns for the stranger in front of me. What the hell is wrong with me? Seriously? I keep thinking about the holes they have behind their ears, and all I want to do right now is touch his. I want to slide my finger ever so lightly over the ridges behind his ear and over the holes. Okay, maybe I want to probe them with my fingers ever so slightly. Ever. So. Slightly.
I hear a very low rumble and look up, seeing BANO staring at me. It’s him making the noise, and I realize that he has been staring at me the entire time. He must have been watching me and picking up on God-only-knows-what. My chest is even heaving a little, and I wonder what he really can sense. Oh shit.
He rumbles a little louder and takes a step toward me. I want to stay and place and step backward, away from him, at the same time. My feet do nothing as he takes another step in my direction. His family doesn’t see any of this, and I begin to panic a little, I know I should say something to get their attention, but my mouth isn’t working. Nothing on me is working, and all of a sudden, he is right in front of me, in my personal space and breathing his breath down on me.
He is tall and lean, at least a foot and a half taller than I am, and God-almighty-in-heaven, his scent is divine. I maintain some semblance of manners and a brain to not reach up on my tip toes and lick his chin, but I want to. Yes I do. My fingers twitch in their want to touch those holes, and I flex them, then ball them into a fist.
He keeps eye contact with me and then, taking a really long blink, leans in toward my ear, and whispers, “xhuh-xhuh.”
“Xhuh-xhuh?” I ask, not knowing what the fuck he is talking about. No longer able to control myself with his warm breath on my ear, I reach up and gently brush my finger over the three small holes.
They are smooth, like silk, and as my finger passes over each one, they flare a little bit. BANO jerks his head away from my hand and stares at me. He grabs onto my hand, pulls my arm straight, then leans in to examine the crook of my arm. He grunts a little, seems frustrated about something, grunts louder, then jerks me in toward him, and finally spins us into his room. Behind us, the door slides closed, and BANO clicks something on a panel. I can hear the others banging on the other side, and for the first time, I feel afraid. What have I gotten myself into? Is he angry that I touched him, and his weird ear holes? Is that something sacred that I wasn’t supposed to touch? Oh shit, what have I done?
I should be polite, make conversation and just, do something. “Um, hi.” Brilliant.
“Ummm, hhhhi,” he imitates.
Just lovely, I have a comedian. “My name is Bella Swan. What is your name?”
BANO cocks his head to the side, but says nothing. Instead, he reaches his hand out to brush my hair away from the back of my ear, and I understand that he is looking for my ear holes. When he doesn’t find any, he jumps back several feet from me, shaking his head and mumbling nothing that I recognize. He begins to pace back and forth across his cabin, speaking only to himself, so I sit on a weird kidney bean shaped bench. Seriously, what is it with these people and furniture shaped like kidney beans?
I rub behind my ears, remembering in my mind what BANO’s holes felt like, and in an instant, he is beside me again, kneeling this time and pulling my hand away from behind my ear. This time he inspects my ear and head more closely and sighs in exasperation.
“What? I’m sorry, I don’t have them. I’m not like you,” I tell him, feeling frustrated and defeated and unworthy. I don’t understand any of that because why should I feel like that? And unworthy?
I’m broken from my inner thoughts by his finger running behind my ears once more. “Edwaird,” he says slowly. His finger makes another slow, sensual sweep behind my ear, then his finger is tracing the shell of my ear and nothing. Nothing has never been so erotic.
What is wrong with me?
There is more banging on the door, and BANO, I mean Edward, is unzipping the zipper on the back of my bodysuit. Is he undressing me? I attempt to scramble away, but he grips onto my arm, making that sound that Essssme made to calm me earlier.
“Ahhh-ghizhhhhhhh,Bell
His fingers spider-crawl up my spine, and I have to fight the urge to giggle; he stops moving when he gets to my right shoulder blade, and his other hand moves to the sleeve of my body suit. In a swift and unsuspecting movement, he quickly pulls my entire right arm from the sleeve, kneels at my side, then lifts my arm up to his face with both hands. Several times he bends and straightens my arm, concentrating on the crook, with one of his hands cradling my elbow.
There are times in life when you have moments, moments where something happens, and you think to yourself, “This has to be a dream. It must be a dream, because weird shit like this just doesn’t fucking happen.” This is one of those moments. In fact, this may be the moment. BANO lifted my arm up to his face and fucking sniffed...I said sniffed the crease of my elbow.
Insert dumbfounded expression here!
BANO attempts to pull my other arm free of my bodysuit, but I’m beginning to regain a little bit of brain back. As he pulls at my other sleeve, I slap at his hand like a cat batting it’s paw at a toy. He looks up at me and jumps up, once again pacing the room. I quickly slip my arm back into it’s sleeve but don’t even attempt to zip my suit back up.
I walk over to the door and wave my hand in front of the censor. Things are getting too crazy in here, and as much as I’d maybe like to jump this...alien’s bones, I want to jump an alien’s bones for crying out loud. This can’t get any fucking weirder, and I think that maybe I did die back on Mars.
“Shahn!” BANO shouts at me from where he paces in the small area of the cabin, but comes running over toward me. His hands grip my face gently, and he turns my head from side to side, studying it angle by angle. He begins to emit a low pitched sound that I can only explain as seismic. I feel it all through my body, but most of all, I feel it under my jaw. Ripples of heat wash over my body once again, and he leans his temple to mine, much like the way I had seen Carlissss doing with Esssme earlier.
My body begins to grow even warmer, and once again, I begin to feel like I’ve been left in the throes of passion with a partner who thrives on torturing me. The tension in my tummy twists, and I can’t help the pants that come out of me.
Something changes suddenly, almost like a switch flipping right in front of me, but BANO, errr, Edwaird, reaches his hand over to the door panel, and I hear a buzz. Ah-lissss immediately rushes in, but the others stay out. Edwaird slumps slowly down to the floor, and I watch, worried, as Ah-lisss coaxes him up and over to the bed. I move to follow them, but Esssssme seizes my hand from the hallway and pulls me out to her.
My body doesn’t want to leave the room. Hell, I’m not sure my mine or even my fucking heart want to leave the room, and I was dying to get out of it only minutes prior. All I know is that as soon as I’m out of that room and into the hallway, I feel utterly alone and so so very confused. Esssssme pulls my face up, looking at my eyes, and I hide them from her, knowing she will see confusion, sadness, and tears. I don’t want her to see the tears, they could just be one more thing that we don’t have in common as two different species.
Behind me I hear Ah-lissss speaking to BANO, and I hear my name fall from his lips several times before I’m pulled away and into the next room. Essssme and Roe-salie flit about the cabin, reminding me of how my Gran always prepared the spare bedroom for me when I would go to stay with her. It makes me incredibly homesick, and all of a sudden, I feel really tired. My feet begin to go out from under me before I know it, but I am being cradled in Roe-salie’s arms before I hit the ground. She feels comfortable and seems to be able to hold me as if I weigh nothing.
I am placed on the most comfortable bed I have ever laid on. This bed could seriously be a cloud, and the bedsheets, angel’s hair. It goes without saying that the second my eyes close I am asleep.
With the door open, it is so, so, so much more intense, maybe more than I can handle. It’s like I’ve snorted a pure concentration of liquid SEX. If I could capture this feeling of euphoria into pill form, I’d make millions. Yeah, yeah, there is such a thing as ecstasy, but I don’t think it could ever compare to how I feel right this fucking second.
I have to look away, because if I don’t, I’m going to attack him, and since I’m a guest on this ship, I don’t think that would be the best idea. Even so, he looks like he wants to attack me too.
From behind me, I hear several sets of footsteps, but my attention is quickly drawn away from that to the beautiful being in front of me when he begins to growl. This growl he emits is both terriffic and terrible at the same time. Terrific because it creates a tidal wave of sensation inside of me. My body warms to the point of sweating, and my nipples harden; I fucking get damp between my legs. Needless to say, I worry that they will be able to detect these...feelings going on inside of me. But seriously, what the hell is going on with me. Why should I feel turned on by a growl?
I hear more footsteps behind me and even louder growling in front of me. Beautiful Alien Number One seems to be growling at his own family. Ah-liss holds her hand up at the on-comers behind me, and she turns to look at “BANO.”
“Bowsh!” Ah-lissss exclaims and BANO immediately stops. The rest of his family behind me has stopped several feet away and murmur amongst themselves quietly. Ah-lissss gives BANO a look that says “relax asswipe” and walks over to the others.
Unsure of what to do or where I should stand, I remain where I am, studying my socked feet. I have no idea what they’ve done with my suit and my boots, but they’ve left my socks on my feet. I pretend my feet are the most fascinating things I’ve ever seen in my life, while my body yearns for the stranger in front of me. What the hell is wrong with me? Seriously? I keep thinking about the holes they have behind their ears, and all I want to do right now is touch his. I want to slide my finger ever so lightly over the ridges behind his ear and over the holes. Okay, maybe I want to probe them with my fingers ever so slightly. Ever. So. Slightly.
I hear a very low rumble and look up, seeing BANO staring at me. It’s him making the noise, and I realize that he has been staring at me the entire time. He must have been watching me and picking up on God-only-knows-what. My chest is even heaving a little, and I wonder what he really can sense. Oh shit.
He rumbles a little louder and takes a step toward me. I want to stay and place and step backward, away from him, at the same time. My feet do nothing as he takes another step in my direction. His family doesn’t see any of this, and I begin to panic a little, I know I should say something to get their attention, but my mouth isn’t working. Nothing on me is working, and all of a sudden, he is right in front of me, in my personal space and breathing his breath down on me.
He is tall and lean, at least a foot and a half taller than I am, and God-almighty-in-heaven, his scent is divine. I maintain some semblance of manners and a brain to not reach up on my tip toes and lick his chin, but I want to. Yes I do. My fingers twitch in their want to touch those holes, and I flex them, then ball them into a fist.
He keeps eye contact with me and then, taking a really long blink, leans in toward my ear, and whispers, “xhuh-xhuh.”
“Xhuh-xhuh?” I ask, not knowing what the fuck he is talking about. No longer able to control myself with his warm breath on my ear, I reach up and gently brush my finger over the three small holes.
They are smooth, like silk, and as my finger passes over each one, they flare a little bit. BANO jerks his head away from my hand and stares at me. He grabs onto my hand, pulls my arm straight, then leans in to examine the crook of my arm. He grunts a little, seems frustrated about something, grunts louder, then jerks me in toward him, and finally spins us into his room. Behind us, the door slides closed, and BANO clicks something on a panel. I can hear the others banging on the other side, and for the first time, I feel afraid. What have I gotten myself into? Is he angry that I touched him, and his weird ear holes? Is that something sacred that I wasn’t supposed to touch? Oh shit, what have I done?
I should be polite, make conversation and just, do something. “Um, hi.” Brilliant.
“Ummm, hhhhi,” he imitates.
Just lovely, I have a comedian. “My name is Bella Swan. What is your name?”
BANO cocks his head to the side, but says nothing. Instead, he reaches his hand out to brush my hair away from the back of my ear, and I understand that he is looking for my ear holes. When he doesn’t find any, he jumps back several feet from me, shaking his head and mumbling nothing that I recognize. He begins to pace back and forth across his cabin, speaking only to himself, so I sit on a weird kidney bean shaped bench. Seriously, what is it with these people and furniture shaped like kidney beans?
I rub behind my ears, remembering in my mind what BANO’s holes felt like, and in an instant, he is beside me again, kneeling this time and pulling my hand away from behind my ear. This time he inspects my ear and head more closely and sighs in exasperation.
“What? I’m sorry, I don’t have them. I’m not like you,” I tell him, feeling frustrated and defeated and unworthy. I don’t understand any of that because why should I feel like that? And unworthy?
I’m broken from my inner thoughts by his finger running behind my ears once more. “Edwaird,” he says slowly. His finger makes another slow, sensual sweep behind my ear, then his finger is tracing the shell of my ear and nothing. Nothing has never been so erotic.
What is wrong with me?
There is more banging on the door, and BANO, I mean Edward, is unzipping the zipper on the back of my bodysuit. Is he undressing me? I attempt to scramble away, but he grips onto my arm, making that sound that Essssme made to calm me earlier.
“Ahhh-ghizhhhhhhh,
His fingers spider-crawl up my spine, and I have to fight the urge to giggle; he stops moving when he gets to my right shoulder blade, and his other hand moves to the sleeve of my body suit. In a swift and unsuspecting movement, he quickly pulls my entire right arm from the sleeve, kneels at my side, then lifts my arm up to his face with both hands. Several times he bends and straightens my arm, concentrating on the crook, with one of his hands cradling my elbow.
There are times in life when you have moments, moments where something happens, and you think to yourself, “This has to be a dream. It must be a dream, because weird shit like this just doesn’t fucking happen.” This is one of those moments. In fact, this may be the moment. BANO lifted my arm up to his face and fucking sniffed...I said sniffed the crease of my elbow.
Insert dumbfounded expression here!
BANO attempts to pull my other arm free of my bodysuit, but I’m beginning to regain a little bit of brain back. As he pulls at my other sleeve, I slap at his hand like a cat batting it’s paw at a toy. He looks up at me and jumps up, once again pacing the room. I quickly slip my arm back into it’s sleeve but don’t even attempt to zip my suit back up.
I walk over to the door and wave my hand in front of the censor. Things are getting too crazy in here, and as much as I’d maybe like to jump this...alien’s bones, I want to jump an alien’s bones for crying out loud. This can’t get any fucking weirder, and I think that maybe I did die back on Mars.
“Shahn!” BANO shouts at me from where he paces in the small area of the cabin, but comes running over toward me. His hands grip my face gently, and he turns my head from side to side, studying it angle by angle. He begins to emit a low pitched sound that I can only explain as seismic. I feel it all through my body, but most of all, I feel it under my jaw. Ripples of heat wash over my body once again, and he leans his temple to mine, much like the way I had seen Carlissss doing with Esssme earlier.
My body begins to grow even warmer, and once again, I begin to feel like I’ve been left in the throes of passion with a partner who thrives on torturing me. The tension in my tummy twists, and I can’t help the pants that come out of me.
Something changes suddenly, almost like a switch flipping right in front of me, but BANO, errr, Edwaird, reaches his hand over to the door panel, and I hear a buzz. Ah-lissss immediately rushes in, but the others stay out. Edwaird slumps slowly down to the floor, and I watch, worried, as Ah-lisss coaxes him up and over to the bed. I move to follow them, but Esssssme seizes my hand from the hallway and pulls me out to her.
My body doesn’t want to leave the room. Hell, I’m not sure my mine or even my fucking heart want to leave the room, and I was dying to get out of it only minutes prior. All I know is that as soon as I’m out of that room and into the hallway, I feel utterly alone and so so very confused. Esssssme pulls my face up, looking at my eyes, and I hide them from her, knowing she will see confusion, sadness, and tears. I don’t want her to see the tears, they could just be one more thing that we don’t have in common as two different species.
Behind me I hear Ah-lissss speaking to BANO, and I hear my name fall from his lips several times before I’m pulled away and into the next room. Essssme and Roe-salie flit about the cabin, reminding me of how my Gran always prepared the spare bedroom for me when I would go to stay with her. It makes me incredibly homesick, and all of a sudden, I feel really tired. My feet begin to go out from under me before I know it, but I am being cradled in Roe-salie’s arms before I hit the ground. She feels comfortable and seems to be able to hold me as if I weigh nothing.
I am placed on the most comfortable bed I have ever laid on. This bed could seriously be a cloud, and the bedsheets, angel’s hair. It goes without saying that the second my eyes close I am asleep.
oOo
Down this red hall, the walls are red, the carpet is red, the ceiling is red, but at the end of it, a shiny, silver door. It is not red. The lights are all red, but the door is not. A fist floats up from nowhere and makes a soundless knock, and a scream is let forth.
I wake sitting straight up in my bed and screaming a silent scream. My mouth is open in an O, but I can’t speak. My chest rises and falls, and I slump back to the bed, realizing it was a dream. Just a dream. Not even a frightening dream, but disturbing? Yes. I hear movement outside of my door and think about getting up to inspect, but I am a guest here. It would be rude to go wandering into places where I may not be welcome.
A voice cries out, my name being carried through the air, and the need in the tenor of that voice hits me squarely in the chest. I jump out of the bed and run to the door, waving my hand across the censor, but the door does not open. I try again and again, but the door doesn’t budge. I’ve been locked in. I shuffle back to the bed, feeling tired and useless and drift off to a dreamless sleep.
An ocean, red.
Tingling lips.
His lips. Oh sweet baby Jesus, his lips.
oOo
My door slides open, and I hear low voices speaking before I open my heavy lidded eyes and see anyone. I feel like I’ve been sleeping for weeks straight or perhaps only minutes. The three women in the family all enter my room and walk over to my bed. Roe-salie wrinkles her nose and walks out of the room, and I wonder what I have done to offend her this time.
Esssme also wrinkles her nose, saying, “Ssssstahn.”
I have no idea what she is saying, and I look to Ah-lissss, whose face tells me she agrees.
I look back to Essssme, asking her, “Stahn?”
She wrinkles her nose at me and taps it with her fingertip. It clicks then. She’s telling me I stink. Lovely.
I pick my arm up, and as unladylike as it is, I smell my armpit. Yep, I fucking reek. “I stink.”
They look at me in confusion. “Smell, stink, stahn,” I say, and pinch my nose to further my explanation.
“Ssssssmell, sssssss-tink,” Essssssme tries out the words, then nods in accomplishment.
The two of them pull me from the bed, and I have no choice but to walk with them to a small ante-chamber, the bathroom. I have never in my life been so excited at the sight of a bathtub. It is a long, white, perfect square, and I cannot see where the water comes out since there is no faucet, but I have no doubt that there will be water in it soon.
Esssssme moves behind me and begins to unzip my suit. I feel frozen in place, not knowing whether I should tell her that I can undress myself, unsure if that would be rude because of the courtesy they are bestowing on me. I ponder the notion too long and forget that I’m being undressed by a female alien instead becoming mezmerized by the way the water fills the bathtub. The water comes up from the bottom, from slits along the side that I can’t even see. It must flow forcefully, because in just moments, the tub is filled. I stand naked before the three other women.
I look down into the bathtub to see that it is not water, like I am expecting, but a milky substance that has a very slight pink hue to it.
“What is that?” I ask, pointing at the liquid so they understand what I’m asking.
Esssssme pulls my hair from my neck, wrapping it up in a cloth that resembles muslin, and answers, “It is the nectar of the Ssssoom. It hassss many healing qualitiessssss that will aid you in your recovery. Your ssssshell hasss experienced a taxing hardsssship.”
She grips my right hand, and Ah-lissss takes the other, both pulling me toward the bath. I don’t argue with them, because my body is achey, and I did almost die.
One leg goes in, and the other. The hands holding onto my hands help me ease in until I am finally submerged up to my shoulders. I don’t notice it at first, the temperature of the liquid is neither warm or cold, but the same as my skin’s temperature. Slowly, it begins to heat up. It warms and warms until I feel like I’m wrapped in an electric blanket. Tingling starts in my toes and fingers, then travels up my legs and arms, when it reaches the trunk of my body. It feels more like a pulsing than a tingle. The pulsing makes my eyes heavy, and I worry that I’m having an adverse reaction to whatever they’ve put me in. I may be allergic or something. I want to panic, tell them that something is wrong, but my tongue feels heavy and bulbous in my mouth. My eyes slide shut, and I float once again.
I see the green of his eyes, the golden bronze of his hair, the holes behind his ear. He chants my name over and over in his adorable alien accent: “Bell-a,
I want to seek him, find him and do many unmentionable things to him.
Colors dance around me, all unrecognizable as they swirl into one another making different colors while still remaining their true color. They all fade to a velvety plum pigment, and I can almost feel the texture in it. It gets closer and closer until I am wrapped in it, and it is warm and soft - ever so soft.
I wake up at the sound of a woosh and quickly sit up, noticing that I am in bed once again. I look around for an indicator of the time, but there is none. Essssme and Ah-liss stand at the door, looking at me expectantly, and I quickly move to get out of the bed. I lose my head a little, getting dizzy when I move to fast, and sway toward the floor, but the two women are over to catch me before I can hit the floor.
“Oh, sorry. Or, um, sa-ahn. I’m sorry,” I mumble.
Esssme lets out a sound that I would consider a chuckle, and I give her a rueful smile, remembering not to show my teeth.
“It issss the time for your nourishhhment,
I expect them to jump away from me in terror, because that seems to be the thing they do when my body performs normal function or when I try to seem nice and thankful. Instead, they both look at my tummy curiously.
Ah-lisss finally asks, “Does ssssssomething reside within you?”
I giggle a little but keep it as quiet as possible, take a deep breath, then answer Ah-liss. “No. I’m hungry, and my stomach is growling to further express my hunger.”
“Hunger?” Ah-lissss asks.
I nod my head at both of them, put my hand up to my mouth and pretend that I’m taking a bite of food, mimicing chewing. I gulp nothing down, then say, “Eat.”
“Eat,” Essssme replies, and I nod at her.
Ah-lissss copies the word, and while they dress me in clothes resembling theirs, they practice my English words. As we walk down the corridor, they request new words from me, and so I teach them words that I can use some kind of charade gesture to help explain what they are. This goes on until we come to a room that almost resembles a normal kitchen, except for the utensils and cookware.
The rest of the Alien family is sitting around another fucking kidney bean-shaped table and eating. BANO is nowhere to be seen, and I wonder if he is alright, worrying a little. The two women sit me in a chair at the table, and I see that it is the last chair. It is BANO’s chair, and I notice Roe-salie eyeing me. Emmeet says something to her and draws her attention from me.
Carlissss is to my left and turns to look at me. “Are you feeling in better health,
“Yes! So very much. That milk bath worked wonders,” I tell him, and it’s the truth. I feel so much better than I had before the bath.
From behind a long island, or partition, Esme corrects me, “Ssssstahn. Not meelk,
I look from her, to Ah-lisss to Roe-salie, confusedly. “But, it felt like milk, kind of. If it wasn’t milk, what was it?”
Roe-salie and Ah-lisssss look at each other, then to Essssme and back to me. Essssme comes out from behind the counter and over to the table, placing a bowl of some soupy mixture in front of me.
“Asss I’ve sssaid, it is the nectar of the Ssssssoom. The sssseed. Hisss esssssence,” Essssme says, sitting down in her seat on the other side of Carlisssss, then ladling a spoon full of the soup into her mouth.
She slurps it a little, and the sound of it makes something in my brain click. Seed. Essence. I look down into my bowl, and although it’s not the same color, it is the same texture. The fact that it is a liquid makes me want to puke my guts out.
I’ve recently bathed in the jizz of some fucking space creature. Just fucking wonderful.
My stomach churns, and I think I’m going to throw up. Actually, I know I am, but before I do, a horrible, painful, terrifying scream travels through the ship. At once, I know that it is coming from him.
Esssssme and Ah-lissss jump up at once and yell, “Edwaird.”
I yell, “BANO!” All eyes fall on me, and I begin to run.
Vidspiration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGultrg7l0I&feature=youtu.be
Glossary:
xhuh-xhuh - more of a sound then a word, kind of like a breathing in sound, but it is the slang for intercourse.
Zook-pah - alien equivalent of “holy shit!”
Bella's POV ~
Along with Ah-lisss and Emmeet, I’m pulled down a long corridor with two others. A male and a female walk on either side of me, and I’ve only picked up their names by accident. There is a male, Jasspeer, and a beautiful female, Roe-salie.
They allow me to walk on my own down the hall, but they each have a hand on me, guiding me to only God-knows-where. As we walk, my mind once again drifts to my dad. I wonder what he’s doing right now, and I mourn the loss of him. I worry about his sadness and whether he’s eating, or mostly drinking away his sadness. I wonder if he’s still working for the police department as their chief or if he has given that up. Thinking of Charlie makes me wonder how much time has passed. I know that travel through space can take time, some astronauts are gone for years and years, and when they return home, their families are changed; moved on without them. That is the whole reason I repeatedly turned down Jacob on his offer of marriage.
We were the best of friends growing up, and when I decided on my future, he knew that it meant changes for us and our relationship that had grown from friends to lovers. Still, he followed me from his beloved La Push for my schooling, and even after that, when I decided not to return toWashington
How old is Jacob now? How old is Charlie? Please don’t let them be dead.
“Pleassse don’t let chwooo be dead?” the one called Roe-salie asks me, and I realize I’ve spoken my thoughts aloud.
I look to my left at her and see the small holes behind her ear open; they make me a bit squeamish for some reason, like they can sense something with them. Though at the same time though, I find them incredibly interesting. I clear my throat a little, feeling the tightness of oncoming tears. “Um, Charlie, my father, and my...friend, Jacob.”
“And wh-ay would they be dead, as you say?” It is the other man asking this time - Jasspeer.
I look to my other side then; the small holes behind his ears are covered by the hair that he wears a bit longer, his bangs curling back behind his ears.
“Well, because I don’t know how long it took me to get here. I mean, that from the point of Mars that we were on, to...wherever it is we are now, I don’t know how far that is. I don’t know the relativity of your time to mine. Days, months, years. They could all be completely different, and I have no idea.”
They all face forward as we come to a door, and it doesn’t go unnoticed that none of them bother to answer my question. It doesn’t seem like they don’t have the answer, but more like something they don’t want me to know, which is probably bad news for me...and Jake and Dad.
The door we go through leads us to another long hallway with several other doors along it. As we pass the second one, I hear loud noises, and the four others surrounding me make noises, maybe equivalent to my snickers? I’m not sure until the small woman, Ah-liss looks over at me and makes a funny, breathy noise.
“xhuh-xhuh. Eeentercourssse.” She says, looking over at Jasspeer, and they seem to have a silent conversation.
Behind me, I hear Emmeet make that sound he’d made on the ship once again, and it makes me wonder what it means. These...creatures, have so many words that I don’t recognize which I find incredibly interesting. This entire experience is frightening, yet exciting all at once.
There must be confusion on my face because my shoulder is gripped. I turn my head to look at Roe-salie, the hand belongs to her.
“Emmeet and I are mated. He is unable to masssk some of his needsss due to our impregnation,” she explains.
I look down at her belly and see it, ever so flat, then look back up to her face. It must be early in the pregnancy as Roe-salie shows no signs of carrying a child.
“How far into the pregnancy are you?” I can’t help but be curious. I have always wanted children, but nothing had ever worked out the way I thought it would. Besides, with my profession, it wouldn’t be fair to raise a child with my schedule, which is pure chaos.
Roe-salie cocks her head at me a little. “You are missstaken,” she says to me, then looks at Emmeet. I follow her gaze to the back of Emmeet’s form in front of me...then I notice it. Just above his ass is a slight bulge covered by his starchy-straight shirt.
Curiousity gets the best of me, and I reach my hand out to touch his back, not thinking. Out of nowhere, I’m thrown up against the corridor wall by Roe-salie. The holes behind her ears are uncovered, and she emits a very low growl or rumble. It sounds a bit like synthesized music coming from her, many levels of different tones in just her one voice. It is both beautiful and utterly frightening at the same time.
Emmeet runs over to stand between Roe-salie and me, leaning toward her and speaking softly to her. I cannot hear any of what he says, but she backs down and pats her chin at him. She looks at me, then, and warns, “You musssssn’t touch! He isssss mine. They both, are mine.”
I nod my head at her and look at Emmeet again. It clicks. “Wait. How is that possible? Emmeet is pregnant?”
I can feel the shock written all over my face, and I decide that I’m going to really look forward to learning more about this...err....species.
**
We all sit around an odd, kidney-bean shaped white table, including Essssme & Carlisss. They both look incredibly happy and repeatedly lean their heads together, causing their temples and ears to touch. I want to, no, need to know more. I need to find out everything I possibly can about this little clan of intergalactic beings. So many questions speed through my brain, and I’m finding it hard to filter them into most important and least important.
We’ve just sat down and have yet to start this meeting they’ve called. I had begun to bombard them with questions earlier after I found out that it is Emmeet that is carrying his and Roe-salie’s child. and my mouth just won’t stop. Then, this really weird screaming/groaning sound went through the ship, and Ah-lisss got this funny look on her face. She looked at Jassspeer before walking away.
Now, here we are, and once again, Ah-lisss and Jassspeer are huddled together and saying few words, but seem to be silently holding entire conversations with them. Roe-salie stands behind a sitting Emmeet, taking what I can only call a protective stance around him, and throwing daggers from her eyes and in my direction every once in a while.
Essssme makes a funny noise, almost like a laugh, yet not, then stands up.
“Bella. I am ssssure you have an abundanccce of questionsss for usss. We have questionsss for you as well. I regret that we may not be able to anssser them all, but we ssshall try.” She sits back down and motions to Emmeet with her hand.
I have to hold back a bubble of laughter that rises in my throat when I hear Emmeet’s voice again, sounding very feminine, and I wonder if it is a result of the...errr, his pregnancy. Just thinking this pulls a manic giggle from me, and they all look at me, cocking their heads to one side or another.
“We are having a difficult tttime underssstanding why you find our pregnancccy confussssing, Bella,” Emmeet confesses as he looks over his shoulder and up at Roe-salie. She moves her hand to run her finger over the holes behind his ears, that I notice, are covered by the protective skin layer.
I clear my throat, and all eyes fall on me, wide and slightly shocked. Roe-salie jumps in front of Emmeet and pulls some sort of a weapon? from I don’t know where.
“gnyuck gnyuck,” Essssme yells loudly, and I wonder what I have done wrong.
“I’m sorry, I...I was just clearing my throat, so I could speak,” I explain, praying that they understand what I mean. The seem to be able to understand most things I say, but some of our mannerisms, like smiling, and obviously, throat-clearing, mean much different things to each of us.
Essssme reaches her hand out to Roe-salie, then moves it over toward me, saying “Sa-ahn!” Her voice cloaked, with a touch of authority.
Roe-salie straightens and steps to the side of Emmeet, looking over at me. Then, so quietly that I can barely hear, she says, “Sa-ahn.” My guess is that it means sorry, or something close to it.
“Sorry,” I say.
“Sa-ahn,” Roe-salie again says, bumping the bottom of her chin with the top of her hand.
“Yes. Sa-ahn. Sorry,” I say to them all, hoping they are understanding my explanation.
“Sar-E,” Carlissss says, and his voice is like a silk ribbon cutting through the air. Goose bumps raise up on my arms, while the rest of my body flushes a little. “Sar-E, Sar-E, Sar-E.” He repeats my word over and over again, trying it out, and I close my eyes, trying to compose myself and my body’s hormonal betrayal. When I reopen them, all eyes are on me once again, and I notice that all of their back “ear-holes” have opened.
“What are the holes behind your ears?” Before I can stop my mouth, the words are out leaving me feeling like a total jackass.
Ah-liss jumps up on the table in one leap and walks across it toward me. She sits cross-legged just a foot in front of me, still on the table. “Sssensors. We tassste the air with them, and your emotionsssss.” She leans in closer to me and quietly whispers, “We usssse them in other sssituationss assss well.” After she says the last part she looks at me, her eyes asking if I understand, and I really, really do.
“Why do you not have them?” Jassspeer asks this time, and his voice comes out as a deep baritone.
“Ah, well, because you are from a different planet, maybe galaxy, than I am from. Where I am from, it is the female in a relationship, or mated pair, that carries a child in pregnancy, not the man. I am confused about how this works for you. What planet do you come from?” This is what the meeting is for. To ask questions and give answers, and I finally remind myself to not be afraid. They seem like gentle beings, aside from the protective Roe-salie, but I can even understand that. My brain wants answers, craves them, while my heart is not so sure it wants to know. My heart screams for Charlie, for home, and for familiarity.
At my explanation, the group bursts into conversation, talking to each other quickly and gesturing wildly with their hands and arms. This goes on for a few minutes, and all I can do is sit and watch, completely transfixed. Their movements seem choreographed and fluid, truly beautiful like a whacked out ballet. Essssme puts her hand in the air and flicks her fingers outward, immediately silencing all the others.
“Our home planet is Sisla, and we are in the Thwah-ohhn gah-laxi. Where issss it that you come from, Bell-ah?” Essssme asks, speaking with the clearness of assured authority in the group.
“I come from the planet Earth, in the Milky Way Galaxy. I’m human, and I’m an astronaut. How far away from the Milky Way Galaxy are we?”
“A very great deesssstance, child. Very great,” Essssme says, then looks away from me and over to Carlissss.
I’m suddenly reminded of my humanity as I feel a stab of pain in my abdomen. I really need to piss. “Um, could you direct me to the bathroom?”
“Bath
“Umm, urinate...expel?” I hope they will understand one of these words.
Emmeet jumps up quickly and raises his hand in the air, kind of pumping his arm and yells, “Pi-pee.”
This time, I truly can’t hold my laughter in, which is a shame in my condition because I giggle at that so hard that I almost piss myself. I lean over at the waist, attempting to regain a little dignity. Without my notice, Ah-liss has hopped down from the table and loops her arm through mine, pulling me from the room. I hope that they are all here when I return because I still have so many questions for them.
We move down an adjacent corridor from the one we traveled to enter the chamber we just left. This hallway looks a little more comfortable, almost decorated if I could call it that. There are random works of what I can only call art attached to walls and small lights, not all that different from the rope lights I have on my porch at home, adorn the walls and cutouts in the walls, blinking to their own rhythm.
Ah-liss takes a step in front of me, turns us down a small passage, and pushes a door open. As I walk through the door, I look around and take in the room and my surroundings. All words and thoughts escape me as I take stock of the enormous room we’ve just entered. Where it lacks in decoration, it makes up in what you could call natural “light” and “space.” Another manic giggle bursts out of my chest, and I walk over to the largest window I’ve ever seen in my life. The window is actually an outside wall of the ship but I can tell that the glass, or whatever material they use, is incredibly thick and resistant.
The view. I cannot come close to explaining the view. I may be in space, where it would seem that it would be so dark; it is anything but dark. Through the window I can see stars for years and years. Stars for miles and infinite space, and it is the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen. I want to never look away, but I feel a tug on my hand as Ah-liss leads me through another door into an interesting looking bathroom. I need to stop expecting things to look even remotely normal here.
I relieve my bladder, and the second I stand up, there is the sound of suction. The lavatory is immediately emptied. I put my hands under what I think is a faucet, and a puff of some vapory substance shoots out at my hands. There are no towels, so I air my hands out, attempting to dry the vapor, and wave my hand in front of the door censor. Ah-lisss is sitting on a plush red chair when I come out, and I walk back over to the window.
The ship must have turned, because now the view in front of me is a swirl of many different colors. I’m not sure if it is a nebula, or gases or another galaxy, but it takes my breath away.
“So beautiful,” I whisper, afraid that if I speak any louder, it may disappear.
“That isss Kazwhahk, where my Jassspeer come from,” Ah-lisss tells me with a far-off look in her eyes. “There wassss war there. Mossst met their death, and that issss why there are only particlesss now. You mussn’t ever ssspeak of that to my Jassspeer.”
I look over at Ah-lisss, studying her. It is the most subdued I’ve seen and heard her, conveying the gravity, the sadness, of whatever took place on that planet. “I won’t.”
Out of the quiet, there is a strange clicking sound, almost like the sound your tongue makes when you trill it, but without the sound. A silent trill, yet so very loud. It echoes through the large hall we are standing in, and I quickly look over to Ah-lisss. Her eyes grow very large, and she taps the backside of her wrist to her chin, grabs my hand and pulls me behind her as she begins to run.
She pulls me through corridors that I have not been down, and I can feel us going further and further into the heart of the ship. After we run for several minutes, she slows when we come to a glass door. She waves her hand in front of the door censor, and pulls me in behind her when it opens. There are four different halls that we could walk down, but she pulls me down the furthest to the left. It is lit with red wall sconces that give off a dim, almost seductive feel. As I walk behind Ah-lisss, I think about how odd it is that a certain color of light would make me feel seductive, but it does.
Ah-lisss slows a little more, and I walk beside her, wondering where she has brought me. It hits me like a truck, no, like a freight train as we come to a door. A plain metal door and swirls of lust, euphoria and serentity surge through me.
“Zook-pah!” Ah-lisss exclaims. I have no fucking idea what it means, but I know that whatever she has just said, makes complete sense for what I am feeling right now. I don’t understand any of this, but at the same time, I don’t really care why. Nothing matters, everything matters.
I look at Ah-lisss for answers and see her back ear holes open; she leans close to me as they flare wider.
Another sound comes from behind the door, and it sounds a bit like the noise that Emmeet had made earlier. Something about that sound draws me closer to the door, and part of me feels like I should be clawing my way through it. Fuck the material. Fuck the fact that it may leave my fingers bloody and broken. My entire body feels like it is on fire. Maybe I should feel embarrassed at the intense nearness of an oncoming orgasm, but I don’t. I can’t. This feels nothing but perfect.
I feel a light sweat break out over my upper lip, and Ah-lisss makes a sound in her throat. Somehow, I can’t really be bothered by it. Nothing matters right now, other than me and what or whoever it is behind that door.
Ah-lisss moves me over to the side, and I hiss out loud. Did that just come from me? She waves her hand in front of the door censor, and the feeling increases ten-fold. My inner coils begin to spasm, and Ah-liss makes that noise again.
“Please.” It’s all I can say as the door slowly opens, and I’m confronted with the most perfect being I’ve ever seen.
Glossary:
xhuh-xhuh - more of a sound then a word, kind of like a breathing in sound, but it is the slang for intercourse.
Zook-pah - alien equivalent of “holy shit!”
Bella's POV ~
Along with Ah-lisss and Emmeet, I’m pulled down a long corridor with two others. A male and a female walk on either side of me, and I’ve only picked up their names by accident. There is a male, Jasspeer, and a beautiful female, Roe-salie.
They allow me to walk on my own down the hall, but they each have a hand on me, guiding me to only God-knows-where. As we walk, my mind once again drifts to my dad. I wonder what he’s doing right now, and I mourn the loss of him. I worry about his sadness and whether he’s eating, or mostly drinking away his sadness. I wonder if he’s still working for the police department as their chief or if he has given that up. Thinking of Charlie makes me wonder how much time has passed. I know that travel through space can take time, some astronauts are gone for years and years, and when they return home, their families are changed; moved on without them. That is the whole reason I repeatedly turned down Jacob on his offer of marriage.
We were the best of friends growing up, and when I decided on my future, he knew that it meant changes for us and our relationship that had grown from friends to lovers. Still, he followed me from his beloved La Push for my schooling, and even after that, when I decided not to return to
How old is Jacob now? How old is Charlie? Please don’t let them be dead.
“Pleassse don’t let chwooo be dead?” the one called Roe-salie asks me, and I realize I’ve spoken my thoughts aloud.
I look to my left at her and see the small holes behind her ear open; they make me a bit squeamish for some reason, like they can sense something with them. Though at the same time though, I find them incredibly interesting. I clear my throat a little, feeling the tightness of oncoming tears. “Um, Charlie, my father, and my...friend, Jacob.”
“And wh-ay would they be dead, as you say?” It is the other man asking this time - Jasspeer.
I look to my other side then; the small holes behind his ears are covered by the hair that he wears a bit longer, his bangs curling back behind his ears.
“Well, because I don’t know how long it took me to get here. I mean, that from the point of Mars that we were on, to...wherever it is we are now, I don’t know how far that is. I don’t know the relativity of your time to mine. Days, months, years. They could all be completely different, and I have no idea.”
They all face forward as we come to a door, and it doesn’t go unnoticed that none of them bother to answer my question. It doesn’t seem like they don’t have the answer, but more like something they don’t want me to know, which is probably bad news for me...and Jake and Dad.
The door we go through leads us to another long hallway with several other doors along it. As we pass the second one, I hear loud noises, and the four others surrounding me make noises, maybe equivalent to my snickers? I’m not sure until the small woman, Ah-liss looks over at me and makes a funny, breathy noise.
“xhuh-xhuh. Eeentercourssse.” She says, looking over at Jasspeer, and they seem to have a silent conversation.
Behind me, I hear Emmeet make that sound he’d made on the ship once again, and it makes me wonder what it means. These...creatures, have so many words that I don’t recognize which I find incredibly interesting. This entire experience is frightening, yet exciting all at once.
There must be confusion on my face because my shoulder is gripped. I turn my head to look at Roe-salie, the hand belongs to her.
“Emmeet and I are mated. He is unable to masssk some of his needsss due to our impregnation,” she explains.
I look down at her belly and see it, ever so flat, then look back up to her face. It must be early in the pregnancy as Roe-salie shows no signs of carrying a child.
“How far into the pregnancy are you?” I can’t help but be curious. I have always wanted children, but nothing had ever worked out the way I thought it would. Besides, with my profession, it wouldn’t be fair to raise a child with my schedule, which is pure chaos.
Roe-salie cocks her head at me a little. “You are missstaken,” she says to me, then looks at Emmeet. I follow her gaze to the back of Emmeet’s form in front of me...then I notice it. Just above his ass is a slight bulge covered by his starchy-straight shirt.
Curiousity gets the best of me, and I reach my hand out to touch his back, not thinking. Out of nowhere, I’m thrown up against the corridor wall by Roe-salie. The holes behind her ears are uncovered, and she emits a very low growl or rumble. It sounds a bit like synthesized music coming from her, many levels of different tones in just her one voice. It is both beautiful and utterly frightening at the same time.
Emmeet runs over to stand between Roe-salie and me, leaning toward her and speaking softly to her. I cannot hear any of what he says, but she backs down and pats her chin at him. She looks at me, then, and warns, “You musssssn’t touch! He isssss mine. They both, are mine.”
I nod my head at her and look at Emmeet again. It clicks. “Wait. How is that possible? Emmeet is pregnant?”
I can feel the shock written all over my face, and I decide that I’m going to really look forward to learning more about this...err....species.
**
We all sit around an odd, kidney-bean shaped white table, including Essssme & Carlisss. They both look incredibly happy and repeatedly lean their heads together, causing their temples and ears to touch. I want to, no, need to know more. I need to find out everything I possibly can about this little clan of intergalactic beings. So many questions speed through my brain, and I’m finding it hard to filter them into most important and least important.
We’ve just sat down and have yet to start this meeting they’ve called. I had begun to bombard them with questions earlier after I found out that it is Emmeet that is carrying his and Roe-salie’s child. and my mouth just won’t stop. Then, this really weird screaming/groaning sound went through the ship, and Ah-lisss got this funny look on her face. She looked at Jassspeer before walking away.
Now, here we are, and once again, Ah-lisss and Jassspeer are huddled together and saying few words, but seem to be silently holding entire conversations with them. Roe-salie stands behind a sitting Emmeet, taking what I can only call a protective stance around him, and throwing daggers from her eyes and in my direction every once in a while.
Essssme makes a funny noise, almost like a laugh, yet not, then stands up.
“Bella. I am ssssure you have an abundanccce of questionsss for usss. We have questionsss for you as well. I regret that we may not be able to anssser them all, but we ssshall try.” She sits back down and motions to Emmeet with her hand.
I have to hold back a bubble of laughter that rises in my throat when I hear Emmeet’s voice again, sounding very feminine, and I wonder if it is a result of the...errr, his pregnancy. Just thinking this pulls a manic giggle from me, and they all look at me, cocking their heads to one side or another.
“We are having a difficult tttime underssstanding why you find our pregnancccy confussssing, Bella,” Emmeet confesses as he looks over his shoulder and up at Roe-salie. She moves her hand to run her finger over the holes behind his ears, that I notice, are covered by the protective skin layer.
I clear my throat, and all eyes fall on me, wide and slightly shocked. Roe-salie jumps in front of Emmeet and pulls some sort of a weapon? from I don’t know where.
“gnyuck gnyuck,” Essssme yells loudly, and I wonder what I have done wrong.
“I’m sorry, I...I was just clearing my throat, so I could speak,” I explain, praying that they understand what I mean. The seem to be able to understand most things I say, but some of our mannerisms, like smiling, and obviously, throat-clearing, mean much different things to each of us.
Essssme reaches her hand out to Roe-salie, then moves it over toward me, saying “Sa-ahn!” Her voice cloaked, with a touch of authority.
Roe-salie straightens and steps to the side of Emmeet, looking over at me. Then, so quietly that I can barely hear, she says, “Sa-ahn.” My guess is that it means sorry, or something close to it.
“Sorry,” I say.
“Sa-ahn,” Roe-salie again says, bumping the bottom of her chin with the top of her hand.
“Yes. Sa-ahn. Sorry,” I say to them all, hoping they are understanding my explanation.
“Sar-E,” Carlissss says, and his voice is like a silk ribbon cutting through the air. Goose bumps raise up on my arms, while the rest of my body flushes a little. “Sar-E, Sar-E, Sar-E.” He repeats my word over and over again, trying it out, and I close my eyes, trying to compose myself and my body’s hormonal betrayal. When I reopen them, all eyes are on me once again, and I notice that all of their back “ear-holes” have opened.
“What are the holes behind your ears?” Before I can stop my mouth, the words are out leaving me feeling like a total jackass.
Ah-liss jumps up on the table in one leap and walks across it toward me. She sits cross-legged just a foot in front of me, still on the table. “Sssensors. We tassste the air with them, and your emotionsssss.” She leans in closer to me and quietly whispers, “We usssse them in other sssituationss assss well.” After she says the last part she looks at me, her eyes asking if I understand, and I really, really do.
“Why do you not have them?” Jassspeer asks this time, and his voice comes out as a deep baritone.
“Ah, well, because you are from a different planet, maybe galaxy, than I am from. Where I am from, it is the female in a relationship, or mated pair, that carries a child in pregnancy, not the man. I am confused about how this works for you. What planet do you come from?” This is what the meeting is for. To ask questions and give answers, and I finally remind myself to not be afraid. They seem like gentle beings, aside from the protective Roe-salie, but I can even understand that. My brain wants answers, craves them, while my heart is not so sure it wants to know. My heart screams for Charlie, for home, and for familiarity.
At my explanation, the group bursts into conversation, talking to each other quickly and gesturing wildly with their hands and arms. This goes on for a few minutes, and all I can do is sit and watch, completely transfixed. Their movements seem choreographed and fluid, truly beautiful like a whacked out ballet. Essssme puts her hand in the air and flicks her fingers outward, immediately silencing all the others.
“Our home planet is Sisla, and we are in the Thwah-ohhn gah-laxi. Where issss it that you come from, Bell-ah?” Essssme asks, speaking with the clearness of assured authority in the group.
“I come from the planet Earth, in the Milky Way Galaxy. I’m human, and I’m an astronaut. How far away from the Milky Way Galaxy are we?”
“A very great deesssstance, child. Very great,” Essssme says, then looks away from me and over to Carlissss.
I’m suddenly reminded of my humanity as I feel a stab of pain in my abdomen. I really need to piss. “Um, could you direct me to the bathroom?”
“
“Umm, urinate...expel?” I hope they will understand one of these words.
Emmeet jumps up quickly and raises his hand in the air, kind of pumping his arm and yells, “Pi-pee.”
This time, I truly can’t hold my laughter in, which is a shame in my condition because I giggle at that so hard that I almost piss myself. I lean over at the waist, attempting to regain a little dignity. Without my notice, Ah-liss has hopped down from the table and loops her arm through mine, pulling me from the room. I hope that they are all here when I return because I still have so many questions for them.
We move down an adjacent corridor from the one we traveled to enter the chamber we just left. This hallway looks a little more comfortable, almost decorated if I could call it that. There are random works of what I can only call art attached to walls and small lights, not all that different from the rope lights I have on my porch at home, adorn the walls and cutouts in the walls, blinking to their own rhythm.
Ah-liss takes a step in front of me, turns us down a small passage, and pushes a door open. As I walk through the door, I look around and take in the room and my surroundings. All words and thoughts escape me as I take stock of the enormous room we’ve just entered. Where it lacks in decoration, it makes up in what you could call natural “light” and “space.” Another manic giggle bursts out of my chest, and I walk over to the largest window I’ve ever seen in my life. The window is actually an outside wall of the ship but I can tell that the glass, or whatever material they use, is incredibly thick and resistant.
The view. I cannot come close to explaining the view. I may be in space, where it would seem that it would be so dark; it is anything but dark. Through the window I can see stars for years and years. Stars for miles and infinite space, and it is the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen. I want to never look away, but I feel a tug on my hand as Ah-liss leads me through another door into an interesting looking bathroom. I need to stop expecting things to look even remotely normal here.
I relieve my bladder, and the second I stand up, there is the sound of suction. The lavatory is immediately emptied. I put my hands under what I think is a faucet, and a puff of some vapory substance shoots out at my hands. There are no towels, so I air my hands out, attempting to dry the vapor, and wave my hand in front of the door censor. Ah-lisss is sitting on a plush red chair when I come out, and I walk back over to the window.
The ship must have turned, because now the view in front of me is a swirl of many different colors. I’m not sure if it is a nebula, or gases or another galaxy, but it takes my breath away.
“So beautiful,” I whisper, afraid that if I speak any louder, it may disappear.
“That isss Kazwhahk, where my Jassspeer come from,” Ah-lisss tells me with a far-off look in her eyes. “There wassss war there. Mossst met their death, and that issss why there are only particlesss now. You mussn’t ever ssspeak of that to my Jassspeer.”
I look over at Ah-lisss, studying her. It is the most subdued I’ve seen and heard her, conveying the gravity, the sadness, of whatever took place on that planet. “I won’t.”
Out of the quiet, there is a strange clicking sound, almost like the sound your tongue makes when you trill it, but without the sound. A silent trill, yet so very loud. It echoes through the large hall we are standing in, and I quickly look over to Ah-lisss. Her eyes grow very large, and she taps the backside of her wrist to her chin, grabs my hand and pulls me behind her as she begins to run.
She pulls me through corridors that I have not been down, and I can feel us going further and further into the heart of the ship. After we run for several minutes, she slows when we come to a glass door. She waves her hand in front of the door censor, and pulls me in behind her when it opens. There are four different halls that we could walk down, but she pulls me down the furthest to the left. It is lit with red wall sconces that give off a dim, almost seductive feel. As I walk behind Ah-lisss, I think about how odd it is that a certain color of light would make me feel seductive, but it does.
Ah-lisss slows a little more, and I walk beside her, wondering where she has brought me. It hits me like a truck, no, like a freight train as we come to a door. A plain metal door and swirls of lust, euphoria and serentity surge through me.
“Zook-pah!” Ah-lisss exclaims. I have no fucking idea what it means, but I know that whatever she has just said, makes complete sense for what I am feeling right now. I don’t understand any of this, but at the same time, I don’t really care why. Nothing matters, everything matters.
I look at Ah-lisss for answers and see her back ear holes open; she leans close to me as they flare wider.
Another sound comes from behind the door, and it sounds a bit like the noise that Emmeet had made earlier. Something about that sound draws me closer to the door, and part of me feels like I should be clawing my way through it. Fuck the material. Fuck the fact that it may leave my fingers bloody and broken. My entire body feels like it is on fire. Maybe I should feel embarrassed at the intense nearness of an oncoming orgasm, but I don’t. I can’t. This feels nothing but perfect.
I feel a light sweat break out over my upper lip, and Ah-lisss makes a sound in her throat. Somehow, I can’t really be bothered by it. Nothing matters right now, other than me and what or whoever it is behind that door.
Ah-lisss moves me over to the side, and I hiss out loud. Did that just come from me? She waves her hand in front of the door censor, and the feeling increases ten-fold. My inner coils begin to spasm, and Ah-liss makes that noise again.
“Please.” It’s all I can say as the door slowly opens, and I’m confronted with the most perfect being I’ve ever seen.
In The Deepest Space
Chapter 1 - Last Breath
LISTEN To This Chapter
Picspiration:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/peter%20facinelli%20ass/jadams77/peter-facinelli_10.jpg
Chapter 1 - Last Breath
LISTEN To This Chapter
Picspiration:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/peter%20facinelli%20ass/jadams77/peter-facinelli_10.jpg
Flain - small holes behind the ear that are kind of like a nose, but detect not only smells, but emotions as well and sound. They are covered by skin, but open up when required.
Struiit - a time measurement. Approximately five and three-quarter hours.
Croan - something between a groan and whimper
gnyuck gnyuck - an admonishment like “now now”
cleuge - like a bandaid that adheres to the skin and changes it’s chemical appearance to blend in with the skin
Sa-ahn - sorry
Ahhh-ghizhhhhhhh - a calming sound, to sooth
Zhah-wuut - hold still
Bella's POV ~
“Swan, can you hear me? SWAN!”
I hear his voice but can no longer respond. The oxygen in my tank is running dangerously low, and I can’t waste it on speaking. I shallow my breathing as much as possible while crawling on hands and knees back toward where I think the shuttle is. My heart thuds painfully in my chest, and I know that this could very well be the last few moments of my life. And it’s just so fucking dark out here.
My mind briefly wanders to Charlie - my dad - and then to Renee, my hare brained mother. I think about all of the things I haven’t said to them, have never and will never experience with them. I worry less about my mom because she has her new husband Phil to take care of her, but Charlie doesn’t have anybody except for his fishing pole and the two deputies at the station. I think about our last telephone conversation and how short I was with him. I won’t get to say I’m sorry for being an ungrateful bitch of a daughter.
The rest of my team continues yelling at me through my headset, but their voices begin to feel too far off - like an echo down a long hall from the far end. My arms will no longer carry me, and I feel them go out from under me, followed by my legs, and finally I lay flat against the surface of this foreign planet. It’s dark, oh-so dark, and cold. My space suit is designed to protect me against the cold of space, but it’s a different kind of cold I feel now, the cold of death’s grip. I am a fish out of water, gulping for any last remnant of oxygen I can find...and then there is none.
Then there is nothing but black, but the pressure in my chest is gone. This is death.
***
Essssme's POV ~
“Leeft her ghently, Emmeet. You musssst be careful.”
Emmeet grunts as he picksss the girl up, heavy in her white uniform. I’m sssure sssshe is on the brink of death, I’m sure and we are moving much too ssslowly.
We race to the pod with Emmeet carrying the girl, hoping to sssave her life. She is unresssponsive, and only moments before, we watched her take her last breath from a ssshort distance. She has some form of communicassion device on her, and if we make too much noise while we resssscue her, whomever issss on the other end will know we are here.
“We mussst make hassste, Emmeet. We will be unable to revive her sssoon,” I notify.
Emmeet grunts and runs fasster. We get to the pod, and I quickly open the hatch; Emmeet ssspeeds through, removing the girl’s cranial protection. I rip the purified air tube from the wall, and we open her passage, jam the tube down her thhroat, working to revive her heart. Emmeet movesss at her feet, pulling her boots and cloth from her feet, then begins to shock her arches. Within ssseconds, her back bowsss off of the table as she attempts to breathe in air.
I quickly leap up on the table, stradling her and turn her cranium towards mine. I ssspeak to her through my orbs, demanding she look at mine. She is sstrong-minded, fighting my voice in her head, but complies after my telepathic trancce.
“Ahhh-ghizhhhhhhh",” I buzz through my teeth at her, and her eyes flutter closssed. Sshe will sleep now and not fight againssst our help.
I replace Emmeet, working on her feet so that he can direct us back to the sship. He is a sskilled driver and has ussss moving in short moments. We have the technology to travel without being detected; Emmeet passes over her ship, and we ssee a form walk quickly away, wearing the same uniform the girl had been. My feminine senssses detect it is a man, and my flain opens up; I smell his rigid fear even as far from him as we are. He is most likely looking for the girl, but he will never find her. As far as he knows, ssshe has expired.
Once the girl is in a deep sleep and her heart hasss regulated, I move to the front of the pod and sslide into the ssub-cradle. Emmeet expertly glides uss toward home, and we remain quiet for a time. I think about our misssion today. We had gone in search of a broken pod. Carlisss had argued with Ah-liss about going out, as there were to be cossmic storms, but Ah-liss won, so here we are. The sstorms are just now beginning to make an impact, and after several struiits pass, the ship appears on our satelite.
In the back capsule, I hear the girl moaning and inhoherently murmuring words that have no meaning to me. I extract myself from the ssub-cradle with Emmeet directing us closer to home. The girl sstrugles againssst the restraints I put her in earlier and whimpers loudly. The tube is still down her throat, and her mouth opensss as sshe fights againsst it.
“gNyuck, gNyuck,” I admonish her, then crawl on the table, reaching above her head. I sstab at the air button with my digit, before ssslowly extricating the tube from her throat. She whoops and gaspsss for air, so I gently press againssst her esophogeal crevicce; she calms down.
The girl says nothing for sssseveral momentsss, and she and I watch each other. I releassse her arms and legss from the restraints and watch her move her limbs. Her movements are ssspastic, and I worry that she may have a problem in her cccentral computer sysstem.
“I died,” she says, and my flain opens up once again, tasting her words; Emmeet croansss out front at the tenor of her human voice.
I ssswallow thickly, attempting to regain my composure. Ah-liss gave me this exact warning before we’d left, saying that I mussst maintain my will against unforseen surprissses.
I nod at her. “Yesss, child. You died. But now, you are not dead,” I explain.
Her eyes widen as I speak, and I’m not sssure if it’s at the news that she isss alive or that I have ssspoken to her. She opens her mouth to ssspeak again, but closessss it without saying anything. I approach her ssslowly, taking my time and walking around the table, untangling all of the device cablessss, then unplugging them from her skin puncturessss. She makesss a little noissse when I pull the cable from her neck, and my flain flaresss again. She gassssps, and I look over at her, noticing her gaze upon my neck. I slowly lift my hand, placing it behind my hearing receptors, and smooth the skin back over my flain. The girl watchesss me clossssely, and I know she will sssspeak to me again sssoon; I puff out my chest, ingesting breathing particles, and reach for composure.
A droplet of color dotsssss her cranial column, and I try my hardest not to tassste the air for her essense smell. I drift to the wall compartment that holdssss our bandages and remove a small cleuggge, then move back to place it against the girl’s skin. She flinches ssslightly at my touch, then quickly composes herself. She sssits stoicly upon the table as I move to extend her legssss over the ssside of it.
“You mussst stand, now. Yesss?” I question. I must asscertain that all of her cranial computer functionss are in perfect working function.
The girl ssswings her legs over the ssside of the table, and I put my hands out to her. Ssshe looks fearful, skeptical at first, but then grabs them. A ripple moves across my skin, and I feel my flain flair once again. She notices the change in me and triesss to pull away, but I grip her tighter, pulling her off of the table. She issss shakey on her limbs on firssst account, but I steady her, keeping her upright and fronting her weight. The girl takes several deep breaths, then dipss her head at me.
I drop my hands and move to the side so she hasss room to tesst her capabilitiesss. She takesss one small step, then another - several more, and she issss walking around the cccircular compartment. She letsss go of a twinkling, excited sound, and I am unable to curtail my croan this time.
It slithers out of me slowly, as I am unable to contain it; the girl throwsss her back against the sssshell wall and ssstares at me.
“What was that sound? Did that come from you?” the girl inquires.
Moving over to the door, I wave my hand across the closure sssensor and look back at the girl; I wave her forward, and on much sssteadier feet, she walksss out in front of me, exiting the room.
We make our way to the front of the ssship so that she may properly be identified to Emmeet and that she may sssee her surroundings. She pauses when we come to the compartment head door, and I again wave my hand over the ssensor. It opens, and ssshe moves to walk through. However, I hold her by the arm and move in front of her. Emmeet is not dangerous, we are a calm and loving species, but he is still a young mate and can quickly become irrational.
I feel the girl walk closely behind me, and my flain opens to a new scent that she emits. I only recognize it when we come across an enemy clan and are unsure of our fate. She is feeling fear.
I turn around to her and slowly pass my hand before her orbs. “Ah-ghizhh. Callmm, child.”
Her body quakesss, and I grip onto her arm and hold her steady. Onccce she is composed, I turn and walk the rest of the way into the compartment head. Emmeet wearsss his head phonesss now, communicating with the ressst of our clan. I sslip into the ssseat next to him and point to the ssseat behind Emmeet. The girl ssits.
“What is your name?” she asssks me
“Name?” Thisss word is unfamiliar to mas she attempts the sseat buckles around her armsss and torssso.e.
She dipss her head at me again, then looks around, then back to me. She emits a lot of air, then placesss her hand on her chesst. “I’m Bella.
“Esssme. My title is Esssme. Your title iss
She once again dipsss her head at me, then ssshows me her teeth, making me flinch. She takess notice of my expression and quickly hidess them; a forlorn look comess acrosssss her face. I ascertain that the ssshow of teeth meansss much different thingss to her kind, than mine.
I passs my hand over my face to let her know that all isss well. I am unsure if she undersstands the meaning of this, but her attentionsss are taken from me as ssshe peers out the front of the compartment head. I watch as her eyesss widen and wonder what all of thisss looks like to her.
Our home ssship loomsss in front of usss. Emmeet grunts at me, and I quickly begin to launch our hover land gear, anticipating out entry into the ssship.
***
Bella's POV ~
I have to be dead. None of this can quite possibly be real. This woman, Esme, speaks like a snake, and her feet barely caress the floor as she walks. It’s more of a glide and everything feels so surreal. I know I died. I remember the feel of that last breath of air, and there being none in the next. I remember the way my lungs burned - a horrible pain - and the fading of my vision. I’m in some sort of afterlife that doesn’t really exist. Maybe this is like what people say - how your life flashes before your eyes before you die. But this isn’t that, this is something entirely different and not at all real.
But I can feel pain.
Is this real?
The small pod, as Esme, or whatever her name is, called it, coasts forward a bit and we begin to get closer to the much larger ship in front of us. It is a pristine white color, if that is what you can call it, since I can’t really place a name on the actual hue and stretches far past either end of the pod window in right and left directions. Above the larger ship, I see stars and black, open space. I’ve never felt so small.
The small pod we are in coasts forward into a large mouth on the ships southern tail. Upon our entrance, a heavy weight settles into the bottom of my stomach, and I can’t contain the bile that quickly travels up my esophogus to my throat, spewing out of my mouth. I feel the burn of it in my throat, mouth and in my nasal passage. This can’t quite possibly be real.
The vomit floats in the air, and suddenly, my feet feel so much more solid and sturdy on the floor of the pod. Through the pod window, I see large arms come out of the floor of the docking room and reach up to grip our small pod. In that instant, whatever kind of gravity they have here, sets in. My vomit, having moved forward from my mouth and body, crashes to the floor, some of it landing on “Emmeet.”
In the next instant, he is quickly on his feet and turns to face me; his eyes bulge from his head, and he instantly throws up all over the place, a bluish-green viscous matter.
“Ha-aghhhh, Emmeet! Gnyuck, gnyuck!” Esme says as she jumps up out of her chair. Her hair whips around her body, curving like a protective layer around her upper torso, yet appearing more delicate than silk.
“Sa-ahn,” Emmeet says quietly. His eyes are down cast, and I’m surprised at the soft lilt of his voice. It is smooth like velvet and carries and air of old age with it, although he looks to be my age. I don’t know what age or years or time means in this place; I try to hide my surprise at his voice.
Esme looks at him and raises her hand up in the air like she is holding something, but gesturing at me. “
I know that I should be paying close attention to everything around me, but truth be told, I can’t take my eyes off of Emmeet. He is a good looking...being, but his looks are not why I’m unable to look away from. Behind his ears are three small holes and a flap of skin. The skin shimmers in such away that is utterly beautiful. I’m transfixed; the skin slides back over the holes and finally, I can look away. As I turn my gaze ahead of us, I catch Emmeet’s eyes, and he smiles at me; large dimples dot his cheeks. He nods at me, then looks up ahead of us, and I quickly follow his eyes, remembering that I need to be paying attention to my surroundings if I ever plan to make it out of here.
We walk through several long corridors with me still being carried by Emmeet, until finally, I see a lighted area ahead of us. There is a round room with several glass panes and bright lights, illuminating the glass. It appears to be - what I assume - a satellite or communication system. We round a sharp corner, walking towards a doorway, but Esme comes to an abrupt stop in front of us. She makes this weird clicking sound in her throat and I quickly look over to her to see her focused on something in front of us.
Make that someone...or better yet, someone’s bare ass, a bare fucking naked form. I can’t deny that it’s a very nice ass, and as I stare at it, I realize just how fucking bizarre all of this is. I seriously have to wake up at some point, or truly die, because this can’t all be real. Not fucking possible.
Naked Ass turns around -- yep, totally naked -- and I quickly move my eyes from that...ah, level, and up to his face. He looks young; blond hair cradles a flawless face.
“Carrrrrlisss! You haaven’t a garment on,” Esme teases, not the least bothered by his nudeness.
‘Carllissss,’ prounounced like Car-leeese, smiles and walks over to us in the floaty way that I’d seen Esme do earlier, coming up behind Esme. He reaches his hand out and traces the shell of her ear. The sound that comes out of her is completely indescribable; I couldn’t describe it if I knew every language on Earth and in space. It was like this guttural groan and a lion purr plus something else, all in one. If she wasn’t wearing such a look of pure contentment and ecstasy on her face, I might have been frightened by her.
Esme lets out a long breath that sounds like a hissing sigh and in an instant, there is a short girl standing beside me and Emmeet. In the next half-second, Esme glances at me, then ghosts down the hall with
This is so fucking weird.
I remember the little female beside me and look over at her. Her eyes bug out a little and she makes a small “o” shape with her mouth. The look is utterly ridiculous and I want to laugh, but I have no idea what it means and offending these “people” could be bad. She grips Emmeet’s upper arm and he gently begins to lower me from his embrace. I follow his lead and place my feet on the slightly soft, rubbery looking floor, surprised at the way my body feels here.
I’ve never been a bigger woman by any means, but here, my body feels light, floaty; I feel like I may have trouble keeping my feet on the ground. Maybe that is why they all seem to glide or float to me.
“Weel-cohm,” the small girl says; her voice is luxurious and heady. Like Emmeet’s voice had been, her’s seems too old for her body.
“The title I taake is Ah-lisss. Your title isss
I nod my head at her. “Yes, but how did you know?”
Scaring the hell out of me, Ah-liss throws herself away from me by five or so feet within seconds. I hear Emmeet make a noise behind me, but he places his hand on my shoulder, making me feel comfortable...almost safe.
“Ahhh-ghizhhhhhhh,” he says, gripping my shoulder. “Ah-lisss, composure.”
Ah-liss floats her way back over in front of me and makes that wide-eyed “o” face again, then places her index and middle fingers against the temple of my head. I attempt to turn my head to look around and take stock of my surroundings, to see how many others their are, but Ah-liss holds my head in place as she does whatever it is she is doing.
“Zhah-wuut,” she whispers, and again, I have no idea what it means. I decide to just hold still until she is done with her test, or whatever, on me.
Ah-lisss lowers her hand then and looks me directly in the eyes for several moments. I hold her gaze, trying to convey whatever it is that she needs me too, then she abruptly turns away from me.
“The union is decided,” Ah-liss announces, and all eyes in the room fall on me.
I’m confused and an onslaught of questions plague me, but mostly, I want to know what union.
“What union?” I ask as Ah-liss and two others begin to stalk toward me.
