Enchanted by the Alien Explorer

by Ashlyn Hawkes

  “I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” I say coldly.

  “You aren’t very friendly.”

  I smirk. “You going to tell me I should smile more?” I ask, sarcasm dripping from my words.

  He grins. His teeth are perfectly white, and they aren’t razor-sharp. I’m not sure who I overheard say that. Probably a guy who felt inadequate considering this alien guy could put our bodybuilders to shame without breaking a sweat.

  “No, I wouldn’t tell you to smile more.”

  "Yeah, good. Otherwise, we would've had to have words." I cross my arms and nod. "Go on. Go."

  “Do you need anything?” he asks.

  “For you to leave. Do you know what leave means? I thought you guys had chips so you can understand our language. You aren’t ignorant, are you?”

  “You don’t care about upsetting me.”

  “You’re smiling. I doubt I’m upsetting you, and what? You trying to say I should play nice because you’re a Novan, and Heaven forbid I should say or do anything that would upset the almighty Novans.” I scoff and shake my head. “You can just go ahead and leave and forget you ever saw me.”

  “I appreciate that you feel that you can speak openly with me,” he says.

  “Yeah? Well, fuck you, alien guy. Leave my property now.”

  “Or else?”

  “You’re really testing me?”

  He grins and winks. “No. I just wanted to know what the rest of your threat is. I trust you have something to back it up. Your tongue is quite biting, and your privacy clearly means a lot to me. I—”

  “So aliens are psychiatrists now, are they? I don’t need you to try to figure me out. I’m not a puzzle you can fix. Back off and leave. I’m not going to tell you again.”

  The alien nods and turns around.

  I watch as he leaves. He’s not wearing a shirt, and his back muscles flex and relax as he walks. Sweat glistens and rolls down the grooves and planes of his hard body. I’m sure most women would be drooling at the sight, but not me. Men are pigs. They’re assholes. Takers. They act as if women owe them something. Honestly, it doesn’t matter if the man comes from Earth or Kurian or any other planet. They’re all the same, and they all think they’re gods and that they deserve whatever and whoever they want.

  Not true. Not on my watch. I might have a five-finger discount wherever I go, but that’s necessary. As far back as I can remember, I’ve been on my own. I don’t know who my mom is or was. Never knew my dad. My earliest memory is my grabbing a cookie out of someone’s hand and running away as fast as my short, stubby legs would take me. At least I think it was a cookie. It tasted delicious, but I was so hungry at that point that I would’ve eaten mud filled with worms. When you’re stomach hurts because you haven’t eaten, you’ll settle for just about anything.

  Of course, the person I stole the cookie or whatever from chased after me, but I knew holes and places to hide, and he chased me for a good distance, but he didn’t get a crumb back. I even remember licking my palms. So good.

  I lick my lips now, just remembering. It’s stupid and ridiculous for me to want to be an inventor, but I’ve always been a tinker. It’s how I’ve survived. One time, I swiped a sandwich. The guy pointed a gun at me. I noticed that the mechanism was jammed and told him so. He didn’t listen to me, fired… the gun misfired, and he lost two fingers. Even though he was an idiot who deserved what he got, I fixed his gun for him. The guy gave me a few other weapons to check over and gave me some food and then money and parts.

  But he was a member of some kind of gang, and gangs have rivals, and he got shot up. I sold most of the parts he gave me, and the money’s long gone. Some might call it blood money, but a girl’s got to eat, and I do what I need to in order to survive. Just stay alive. Keep moving forward. Those are my goals, and the way to keep moving forward is to always think ahead. I don’t want some kind of boring nine-to-five job. Yes, there are schools, high schools, colleges, degrees… For a time, none of that matter, but we’re civilized now. The world is getting back to rights, getting back to the way it had been pre-Grots, before the war. That means money and education and all of that is a priority again, but that’s bullshit. We know aliens are out there. We aren’t alone, and our first brush with them had almost ended with all of us dying. Now more than ever, we need better technology. We need advancements, and yes, I might not be an engineer or a mechanic. I might not know all of the proper terms, and I might make more than my fair share of mistakes, but I learn. I grow, and I adapt, and one day, the people on Earth will thank me for saving their sorry hides.

  Or else they’ll all just pay me a lot of money for my inventions. That works too.

  Around these parts, I’m known as the Fix-It girl. That works for me now, but eventually, Ava Kyle will be a household name. I hope. My stomach and my wallet both hope so too. Not that I own a wallet…

  3

  Rix

  It's been about an hour since I left that strange woman behind. I only approached her in the first place because she sounded so frustrated, and there's good frustration and bad frustration. When you're sexually frustrated, that's a very good thing. Or not, I suppose. If your partner in bed is shitty and isn't doing it for you, then your sexual frustration is a serious problem. If your partner is superb, she’ll get you to the brink, frustrating the fuck out of you, and then she’ll deliver. It’s all in the delivery.

  But this frustration had clearly been a matter of something else entirely. Not that I could uncover the scope of the issue. She held some kind of device in her hand, the likes of which I never saw before, but that’s also partially because of the smoke covering most of it and her bare legs.

  Dark eyes. Purple hair that faded to silver at the tips. Heart-shaped face. High cheekbones.

  Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful, but then I’m sure I’ll think that all Earthling females are beautiful too.

  She wants nothing to do with me, and that’s fine. She can go ahead and be frustrated. Not my problem.

  My problem is that I’m hungry, and I’m sure I can find a place where I can get some grub. The food here on Earth is nothing at all like what we eat on Kuria, which makes sense. Different plants, different animals, all that. Still, I don’t recall ever eating anything here that I didn’t care for. My friends say that I’ll eat anything, and I will. Whenever someone can’t finish their food, I’ll eat it. Elli, one of the female Kurians, likes to experiment with food. Fancies herself a cook. A lot of her concoctions aren’t well-received by the rest of our friends, but I’ll eat them. Not because I’m being polite. I’ll honestly eat just about anything.

  It doesn’t take too long for me to head back toward where I met with the general. He’s nowhere to be found, but I do smell some meat cooking, and I follow my nose. A bunch of men are in uniform and sitting down to wooden tables, but beyond them, I spy a street and buildings and a restaurant. Hmm. Why shouldn’t I go and check out some Earthling hot spot? Plenty of people are walking in and out of the place, including some uniformed men and women.

  That settled, I head on over. I get more than a few glances and second looks. Kids whisper to their parents, and the ladies… Let's just say that they seem a lot more receptive than the purple-haired woman with a mouth on her.

  I open the door and stroll in. A woman dressed in a black shirt and skirt rushes over to me.

  “Hello, sir.” She beams. “Can I help you?”

  “I would like to know if it’s possible for me to eat here?”

  She tilts her head to the side, her smile not shifting at all. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

  “Well, you use money, right? Would it be possible to barter for my meal instead? I could wash dishes or slice vegetables or—”

  “Oh, I’m sure we can work something out.” She beams and presses a few buttons on her tablet. “Right this way!”

  The woman is very chipper, and she smiles and nods to other seated customers as she leads me to a table smack dab in the middle of the p
lace. Everyone can have a good look at me as I sit down at the table meant for two.

  “Georgia is your waitress. She’ll be over shortly. Enjoy!”

  The woman’s barely walked away before I hear a faint cough.

  I glance up to see two women standing there. One is giggling and nudging the other. Both have blond hair, but the giggling one has blue eyes. The others are green, and she looks a bit bored.

  “My friend here,” the bored, green-eyed one starts, “thinks you’re hot.”

  “Thank you,” I say to her, “but why isn’t she telling me?”

  The blue-eyed girl’s face turns bright red. “I, ah, well, um, I…”

  “She’s a bit shy, but she knows how to use her mouth in other ways.” The green-eyed girl shrugs. “Or so she says. I don’t know. But her mouth is big. Not that she’s a talker. Do you like talkers?”

  “Seems like you’re a talker yourself,” I comment.

  She rolls her eyes and turns to leave. Her friend protests, grabbing the first’s arm, but the green-eyed girl shrugs her off and returns to their table where a guy is waiting.

  “Would you, ah… You’re alone…” The blue-eyed girl rubs the back of her neck. She’s so embarrassed. “I’m alone. Well, here with Jerrica and her boyfriend Todd, but, um, I’m alone, so maybe… Do you want to join us?”

  “Thank you for the invitation, but I’m alone.”

  “I know. You, ah, you don’t have to be.”

  I eye her. She's young. Maybe early twenties. She doesn't seem to have a lot going for her if she's trying to pick up a guy she doesn't know anything about. I mean, what am I to her? A pet? A kind of prize? Her friend said she knows how to use her mouth, that it's big. A clear reference to oral sex, and while I'm not averse to that at all, I have to remember that I don't want some giggly, overly embarrassed girl to have her mouth around my cock. What if she starts to giggle at the thought of an alien dick in her mouth and accidentally bites me? Fuck that. Fuck no.

  “I’m alone,” I say firmly.

  “Oh. Okay then. I’m… I’m sorry.”

  “For?”

  “For bothering you.”

  I eye her. "Look. I don't know you, and you don't know me, but if you want a guy to like you, don't have your friend talk for you. Don't have her mention your big mouth. Try not to be worried about fucking, and just, I don't know, be yourself, I guess."

  The girl makes a face. “You’re trying to give me advice? You’re right. You don’t know me, okay? So…” She leans close. “You want me to be myself? Fine. I… I want to know if the rumors are true about alien cock.”

  The girl reaches beneath the table for me.

  I stand before her hand can come near my groin. “I think your friends are leaving.”

  She shrugs. “They can leave. I can stay with you.”

  “Jerrica,” I call, “don’t forget your friend.”

  The blue-eyed girl pouts. “Are you sticking around?” she asks.

  “Maybe.”

  “Maybe I’ll see you around?”

  “Maybe,” I repeat warily.

  She giggles and waves before running back to her friends. And I mean she ran. The girl almost plowed into a waitress, who ends up at my table.

  “Hi. I’m Georgia. I’ll be your waitress. Can I get you anything to drink? Do you want any appetizers?”

  “Hi, Georgia. I don’t know if the other woman told you, but I’m going to barter for my food.”

  Georgia looks up from her pad. “She said. The manager will have to come over and sort things out with you, but you can order what you want and worry about the bartering later. So, what’ll it be? I’m sure a hunk of an alien has to be mighty hungry.” She grins.

  Is she flirting with me? Doesn’t seem very professional to me, but it has been a while since I’ve been to Earth. Only a few times did my parents take me to a restaurant on Earth before, and Dad and I never ate without Mom, so none of the women ever treated Dad like this. I wonder if she hadn’t been around, if they might be as flirty with him.

  I’m hungry, though, for food and not for a bed partner. Maybe one day. Maybe after my belly’s full. Who knows? Dad didn’t mention when I would have to return to Kuria, and I’m not in a rush to return. Let’s see what happens. Go with the flow.

  “Do you know what you want to drink?” she asks sweetly. “We have plenty of beer on tap. Do you know what beer is?”

  “I do.”

  “Do you like any? Have you had any?”

  “I’ll have a glass of your most popular beer, sure.”

  “Great! Any appetizers?”

  “What do you recommend?”

  “Well…” She rattles off a bunch of options too quickly. Clearly a well-rehearsed spiel.

  I just smile and nod. “How about you surprise me?”

  “Wonderful.” She winks and walks away, scooting over to avoid bumping into someone else, in the process rubbing her ass against my arm.

  While I wait, I glance around. Other women smile and wave to me. One blows me kisses. Another keeps shoving her tongue into her cheek to make it bulge. It looks unappealing to say the least.

  One woman comes over to me and touches the corner of my lips. “You have some dressing there,” she purrs before putting her finger into her mouth. “I can help make sure you’re clean. Lick your entire body from head to toe.”

  “What are you, a cat?” a male asks.

  Several males laugh, and I look over to see a trio of men dressed in uniform. They’re snickering and smirking at each other.

  “Come off it, Rebecca. Leave him alone,” another male says.

  Rebecca flips them the bird, whips her hair back, and marches out of there, her head held high.

  “Just ignore her,” the first guy says. “She loves to try to get into our pants. She’s pulled that crap with just about all of us now.”

  “You’re a Kurian, aren’t you?” the guy who hasn’t spoken yet asks.

  “Yes. Have you seen another one?”

  “No, but I’ve seen one Novan.”

  “Chrix?” I guess.

  The man nods.

  “My dad.”

  “Nice. Your father’s retired?”

  “Maybe. I don’t know. Just know that I’m here.”

  “And you ordered enough food for an army.” One of the guys sits across from me.

  The other two drag over chairs and help themselves. I don’t mind. The waitress did bring over a ton of food, more than I can eat by myself.

  They ask me a bunch of questions in between bites, and women glance over at us still. All of us get attention, but for the most part, I still get the bulk of it.

  “Not one of them makes you hard?” Simon asks.

  I shake my head and then reconsider.

  “One does.” Mark lifts his chin. “Which one? We know just about all of the regulars here.”

  “Since we’re regulars ourselves,” Lloyd jokes.

  “I didn’t meet her here,” I say slowly.

  “What does she look like?” Simon asks.

  “Dark eyes. Purple hair—”

  “Silver tips?” Mark asks.

  “That’s the one.” I glance at them. “You guys know her?”

  “That’s Ava.” Lloyd leans forward. “How did she react to you?”

  I grimace.

  The guys all burst out laughing.

  “Yeah, she’s always like that,” Simon says with a nod.

  “She a man-hater all right,” Mark agrees.

  “Why?” I ask.

  Lloyd shrugs. “Who knows? Who cares? There are other fish in the see. Yeah, she’s hot, but that attitude sure isn’t. She’s as likely to claw your back and make you bleed than she is to stroke you and rub one out and make you come.”

  The guys then start to talk about this woman and that and how they are in bed, comparing them, and I don’t have anything to say. My thoughts are with Ava. People don’t have anger like that without a reason. Not that I think she’ll tell me
what’s up, but that’s all right. I probably won’t ever see her again. Still, out of all of the women I’ve seen today, she’s the only one who caught my eye.

  4

  Ava

  Frustration has me calling it quits but only in the sense of putting down the convertor. If there’s an alien walking about, he must have come from Kuria with a ship. Maybe he brought some supplies with him to bring to the government. While I don’t want anything to do with a nosy alien, I have had some dealings with a few of the soldiers at the nearby base. I’ve put plenty of them into place, of course, but a few of them aren’t too bad. One in particular, Branden, is basically the closest thing I have to a friend. He’ll keep me in the loop if I ask.

  As I approach the base, I get more than a few glares. I swear I never once stole any of their goods. It had to have been a rat or cat or something else, but they know I’m a bit… unorthodox. I haven’t had to steal for food in almost a decade. Over a decade. I think I was nine, and I’m twenty-two now. Or twenty-three. It’s not as if I remember my birthday, and the days all blur together so you know the years do too.

  One soldier, a woman named Jenny, smiles at me, and I just stare at her, confused. We haven’t talked much to each other, and the only reason why I recall her name is because I never forget a face. You can’t risk forgetting a face when you’re a thief. If you do and you try to swipe off the same person too many times, you risk getting caught. That’s a risk I’ve never been willing to take.

  “Hi, Ava. What brings you around?”

  “Why are you smiling?” I ask bluntly.

  She bursts out laughing. “Sorry. Nothing personal.” She winks and then leans closer. “I can’t stop smiling today. My boyfriend just proposed, and I said yes, of course.”

  “Oh. Ah, congratulations.”

  “Thanks. Do you need something?”

  “I don’t want to bother you.”