Fusion (SciFi Alien Romance)

by Calista Skye

  “I need you,” he said as he gasped for air. “We need to complete the ceremony.”

  “Ceremony?” I breathed and then his lips were on me again. I pushed him back and moved my head away. “What ceremony?” I said again, demanding answers.

  “You and I. We’re one now. Fused together forever.”

  “Hold on a minute. You’re trying to tell me that little crystal thingy did that? Don’t be silly…” But as I said the words, I knew I was wrong. Everything had changed. Even the thought of being without V’Aben brought a stabbing feeling into my chest. And I didn’t even know his first name!

  He must’ve finally registered the shock on my face as I tried to process what had happened.

  “Are you OK?”

  “You’re telling me I have no choice in the matter?” I asked as I attempted to detangle myself from his clutches. I brought my hand to my mouth, this can’t be happening.

  He shook his head. “No, not really. You’re mine now.”

  “I’m not some piece of property that can be claimed—”

  “You misunderstand,” he said as he approached cautiously. “I am yours, too. It is the way of the Crynia. Merea, don’t you feel our connection?” he asked gently as he takes my hands and intertwines his fingers with mine.

  I let out a breath and look up to his deep teal eyes. Looking into them, closely studying them, I felt the same sense of calm that I did when I first held the crystal, I mean, the Crynia. Looking at him gave me a sense of purpose, a place where I belonged. How can any of this be real?

  “How do you know my name?” I asked, liking the sound of it on his lips.

  “Well, I am the security officer. It’s my duty to know everyone’s name.”

  “What’s yours? I can’t keep calling you Commander.”

  “Tekri V’Aben” he said with a smile, his tongue rolling as he pronounced the R within his name.

  “Tekri. I like the sound of that,” I replied and blushed as he dipped down to kiss me gently.

  The doors slide open and V’Aben, Tekri, pulled his hands away from mine as company entered the room.

  Five

  “Commander V’Aben, I didn’t expect to find you here,” Enner said as I pulled the zipper of my boiler suit back up. Enner’s eyes were narrowed as he looked around V’Aben’s body to find me. “If you’ll excuse me, Commander. I have an unruly subordinate to disciple. Cadet Theson, you are in some serious shit. You’re supposed to be in the Ambassadors Wing!”

  “I’m afraid that is my doing,” Tekri interrupted.

  Enner spun around, not liking having his tirade stopped. “Really? How is that?” he asked with a suspicious tone.

  “Your cadet here, in order to do your job had to go out of the boundaries of the wing and I insisted that she had an escort.”

  “Ah, I see…” Enner replied and little sheepishly after being called out about his supervisory tactics.

  I let out the breath I’d been holding, thankful for Tekri’s quick thinking, my mind had gone absolutely blank.

  “How did you even find me?” I questioned, feeling brave in Tekri’s presence, and put my hands on my hips.

  “Your tracker…” he said as if I was stupid. Of course, I thought, I’d completely forgotten about the little implantation we’d both received before heading out onto this job. “Are you quite done here? We have work to do. The Ambassadors ship is due to arrive soon and we still haven’t resolved the issue in their wing.”

  “I’ll be right there,” I said, effectively dismissing Enner. I could tell he wanted to shout and curse at me, but with the commander in the room, he didn’t dare. So instead, he just nodded and quietly left the room, giving me a lingering glance that told me I’d pay for my disobedience later.

  “Thank you for that…” I said turning to Tekri. “What do we do now?” I asked and reached up to caress his face.

  He took my hand and pressed it against his cheek, but not before kissing my open palm. “I don’t want to be without you, but we have to be cautious. We have broken so many laws… The Crynia is only meant for sanctioned partnerships. And only then ever between one Te’Vanian and another. Never with another race.”

  “Oh, gods. What will they do to us?” I asked and nestled into his strong chest.

  He smoothed the tendrils of my hair. “I don’t know. There’s no precedent for this.”

  “Maybe they’ll understand?” I asked desperately.

  “Maybe,” he repeated doubtfully. “For now though, we must act normal. You must return to the Ambassadorial wing and finish the work. I will think of something, I promise.”

  I nodded. I trusted him wholeheartedly; there was no doubt in my mind that he would find a way. We would find a way to be together, no matter what. We’d wither and die otherwise.

  “OK, go,” he said but I still kept hold of his hand, not releasing it.

  “I don’t want to,” I said.

  His hands cupped my chin and tilted it up towards him. I shuddered with pleasure once again as his lips pressed against mine again, this time a little gentler, but still full of desire.

  “We will be together soon. We will join together as one when we see each other again.”

  “OK,” I said and stepped back as Tekri dropped his hands and wrapped them behind his back, preventing himself from reaching out for me again.

  “I’ll come for you… nothing will stop me.”

  * * *

  I wandered back along the corridors in a daze, barely registering the signs and turns I had to make to get back to the Ambassador’s wing. The further from Tekri I got, the more my heart started to ache. His face, his hands, his body were at the forefront of my mind, and as I walked I brought my fingers to my lips. Brushing them against the soft flesh, where his lingering kiss had been only moments before.

  What were we going to do? I couldn’t see a way, the space station was the only place that my species and his ever interacted with each other, and even then it was on a completely other, political, level. If I had to leave and he had to stay, I didn’t know what I would do.

  But I had to trust him; he said he would come for me. Did he know some galactic loophole that would get us out of this mess? As I was sure there was no possible way to undo whatever the Crynia had done to our souls. We’d been fused together, it disappearing into us, and now all I wanted was to be by his side. To strip him down bare and wrap myself around him.

  “Well it’s about fucking time, Theson!” Enner said as I entered the wing. He was sat waiting by the communal dinning table, his fingers drumming impatiently upon its surface.

  I ignored him and went towards the access panel I’d crawled through earlier. I hadn’t managed to locate the source of the problem and doubted going back through was going to solve anything. “Did you take a look?” I asked.

  “No! I was waiting for you,” he snapped back.

  “You don’t know how to fix it do you?” I said pouncing upon the vulnerability I detected in his voice.

  He glanced away for a second, as if he needed time to formulate an excuse, and just as predicted, one oozed from his mouth a second later, “This was a test to see if you could solve it yourself.”

  “Bullshit!” I yelled, whirling on him. “You’re a clueless, worthless supervisor who doesn’t know shit. Coasting along on the backs of others.”

  “Don’t you fucking speak to me like that. I’ll have you kicked out of the program.”

  “I’d like to see you try.”

  Enner was millimeters away from my face, snarling at me. I almost thought he was going to hit me for talking back. Go on, do it, you sackless piece of shit, I thought. It’d give me the very proof I’d need to get of his service and reassigned to another supervisor.

  Then, interrupting us, there was an ear-piercing screech, an alarm, bellowing and echoing around the room. Enner and I both instinctively slammed our hands to our ears, desperate to keep the noise at bay.

  “What’s going on?” I shouted at him.
It was unlike any noise I’d heard on any vessel before. Unrelenting and frightening.

  “I—” Enner began, but before he could finish loud metal clunks emanating from the door rang out.

  Shit. The station was in lock-down.

  My heart went out to Tekri, hoping he wasn’t the cause of this. Had we been found out? Fuck. If someone had noticed the missing Crynia would that cause this reaction? I hoped not.

  But better safe than sorry, I couldn’t have them thinking or jumping to conclusions.

  I quickly paced back to the open access panel, and even though it was torturous, I removed my hands from my ears. The sound was almost mind-scrambling. But I gritted my teeth trying to block the alarm out, and lifted the panel towards the opening.

  “What the fuck are you doing, Cadet?” Enner asked as he came up to my side.

  “It doesn’t matter. Go get your tools!” I demanded, since mine had been lost somewhere along the way. Possibly still in the Altar room.

  “But—”

  “Just fucking do it!” I screamed at him.

  Clutching his ears he stomped to his tool bag, picked it up and brought it back. I drove a hand into it and got what I needed, slammed the access panel back against the bulkhead and fixed the latch back in place.

  At least now they might not realise, at least not right away, that I, or Enner, had used the crawl space to get to the sacred room.

  I covered the area back up with the beige drapes, all the while Enner, his hands pressing against his ears, watched me in a confused state.

  Just as the curtain fell, the telltale sound of the door unlocking could be heard. I encouraged Enner back to the communal dinning table and waited to see who’d come through the door. Praying that it would be Tekri, safe and unharmed.

  Instead two armed Te’Vanians burst through and stepped over the threshold, eyes pinned on Enner and I.

  Six

  “What’s happening?” I yelled to the two security personnel. They don’t seem like they are after me, I thought. They stood flanking the door, either preventing our escape or here for our protection. Neither of them made me particularly happy.

  One of the men, who was maybe half a head shorter than Tekri, grunted an answer but over the sounds on the continuing alarm I was unable to make out what he had said. But as I watched his lips move, I could’ve sworn he mentioned something about the Ambassadors.

  Surely the alarms wouldn’t be sounded for their arrival? I thought. That wouldn’t be very welcoming to deafen your guests.

  Thankfully a moment later the screeching alarm ceased and I could hear myself think again. But the ringing in my ears I knew would stay for at least a few more hours.

  “What’s…” I said, but stopped as I realised I was shouting. “What’s happening?” I repeated at a more normal tone.

  The same guard as before readjusted his grip upon his weapon and looked to his partner as if perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to inform us.

  “Tell us,” Enner piped in.

  “There’s been a theft… and now one of the Ambassadors has been taken hostage.”

  “What?” Enner gasped. But I remained silent, staring into space as a wave of dread ran the full course of my body. Tekri, please don’t be Tekri, I thought and closed my tired eyes.

  I prayed to the gods all around that he had nothing to do with what was going on outside those doors, but the pain in my chest disagreed.

  “Where’s Commander V’Aben?” I asked quietly, not wanting to really hear the answer. Hoping the guard would reply that he was dealing with the situation… the man in charge, on the scene as it were.

  But once again his eyes flickered left to his partner and his throat visibly bobbed. His dusky flesh not able to hide his own worry.

  “Where is he? He’s our point of contact… we need to be escorted off the ship,” I repeated, tying desperately to get them to ease my fears.

  “That won’t be possible. V’Aben is no longer the security commander.”

  A tiny whimper escaped my lips. And I knew he was out there right now, in trouble. I wanted to find Tekri, to go to him make sure he was all right… see him one last time.

  Closing my eyes, I pinched the top of my nose. I couldn’t lose him only hours after I’d found him… found my soul mate. Crynia or no Crynia, he was mine…

  I stepped towards the guards. “Let me pass,” I demanded. It must’ve looked comical to them, a tiny Terranian barking orders.

  “We can’t do that.”

  The other guard shook his head and moved to close the gap between him and his partner.

  “Theson, what are you doing?” Enner called from the safety of his seat.

  Panic started to rise inside me. I felt all jittery and powerless, but I knew I needed to find someway to be by Tekri’s side. I lunged forward, aiming myself at the gap, but the guards held up their arms and swatted me away, as if I were nothing.

  I fell and lost my balance, my knees banging off the floor upon impact.

  Looking back up at the guards, furious, I had to blink to clear my vision, tears had welled up as the pain in my knees began to register, but through the hazy liquid I saw Tekri.

  I gasped, thinking I was hallucinating, but blinked harder and the vision was still intact. Tekri, larger than both the guards, stood behind them at the entrance, and he had a grip upon on someone’s neck.

  They hadn’t seen him yet, and puzzled at what I was looking at, turned to follow my gaze.

  Tekri’s arm lashed out, his fist slammed into the first guard, then the second. It was no contest and they both fell heavily to the floor, knocked out.

  “Are you OK?” he asked as I got to my feet.

  I nodded, then turned my attention to the person he pulled into the room, his hand still tight around her neck.

  “Tekri, what did you do?” I asked as my eyes swung from his to the woman who’s neck he was clutching, who I could only assumed was the Terranian Ambassador.

  “I had no choice…” he said.

  “You’ll never get away with this,” the wrinkled Ambassador croaked.

  “Shut up,” Tekri threatened as he squeezed a tighter hold.

  “What the fuck is going on?” Enner finally spoke up behind us.

  Ignoring him, Tekri continued, “We have to go. Someone reported the intrusion to the Crynia Altar… your boots were still there.”

  “Oh, fuck.”

  “They knew it was you, I had to stop them. They’ll kill you.”

  “So you thought kidnapping an Ambassador would make it all better?” I shouted at him, though I knew I couldn’t be angry with him. He’d only did it to protect me. “Never mind, I’m sorry. You were only thinking of me.”

  Tekri smiled and held out his hand. “We have to go now, before the shuttle departs.”

  I glanced to Enner. “What are we going to do with him?”

  Enner immediately held up his hands. “I won’t say a word…” he said, his voice quavering in fear as Tekri glared at him.

  “Nothing. He’ll keep his mouth shut if he knows what’s good for him,” Tekri replied.

  “Let go of the Ambassador, Tekri,” I soothed. He shook his head. “No, we need her till we get to the shuttle. The whole ship is swarming with guards and my own officers on the hunt for me.”

  I sighed, “OK, but at least loosen your grip. We’ll need her alive…”

  Tekri did as I requested, then ducked his head out into the corridor and listened.

  “Coast is clear,” he said.

  As we left I plucked one of the unconscious guard’s weapons and claimed it for my own, thinking it might come in handy later on.

  We trotted down the passages stopping at every corner.

  “You know where you’re going, right?” I asked as we passed a familiar looking sign. It seemed like we were going in circles and not making any progress.

  “Shh…”

  I zipped my mouth shut and clasped a hand over the Ambassador’s mouth so she couldn’t gi
ve us away.

  The sounds of hurried stomping boots echoed down the corridor just beyond and we waited for them to move away.

  Once gone, I took my hand away from her mouth and we continued forth. My heart was thudding like crazy, we couldn’t get caught.

  “Tekri? What are we going to do if we make it off the ship? Where will we go?” The thought of leaving everything I ever knew behind was beyond terrifying.

  “It won’t matter,” he said over his shoulder pausing for a moment to look deep into my eyes. “We’ll be together and that’s all that matters.”

  “Oh,” the Ambassador said, “it all makes sense now.” She shook her head and gave us both a knowing look. “You used the Crynia, correct?”

  I nodded and blushed. “I love him… but they’ll kill us.”

  She frowned and Tekri gasped. His hand reached out and caressed my cheek.

  “I’ve never loved anyone more,” he replied, our eyes locking.

  “Well, sorry to interrupt, but you really don’t have time for this,” the Ambassador urged.

  We turned the corner and I thought we were almost home free; the shuttle door in sight, when several lines of guards emerged from nowhere and blocked our path.

  I sighed. It had been too good to be true.

  Tekri roared, the tattoo on his forehead darkening in anger. And the guards raised their weapons.

  I patted his upper arm and he turned towards me. If this was going to be the end, I wanted to be in the arms of the man I loved.

  Tekri understood, and quickly released the hold upon the Ambassadors neck and pulled me tight into his arms. His huge body was shielding mine.

  “I love you,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry…”

  “STOP!” A creaky old, but strong and demanding, voice shouted. “There will be no bloodshed on this day!”

  I lifted my head from Tekri’s chest and glanced towards the line of guards. The ambassador had marched in between them and us, putting herself in harms way.