by Stella Casey
“Great,” I said, giving him a wide smile. I went to the cupboards and grabbed a measuring tape and a pad of paper to make notes.
“No writing anything down,” he said, with a frown. Then he looked around the room. “Are there cameras in here?”
I glanced around, feeling confused.
“I don’t think so. The cameras out in the zoo are for catching the public messing with the enclosures and that sort of thing.” He relaxed a little.
“Don’t worry,” I said.
He gave me a wry look. “I’ve seen what your kind does to its own. I’m pretty sure that if someone like me were discovered, it wouldn’t go well.”
He had a point. I had seen all the movies about aliens. I loved sci-fi.
It never did go well when humans discovered the aliens. It always ended in war. And the last thing I wanted was my species declaring war on his.
In fact, as I ran my hands along his biceps, beginning my examination, I had the urge to do the opposite of declare war. Parts of me that had been completely ignored since I got pregnant were once again waking up and demanding notice. An extremely strong sexual response was building in me, and I didn’t know why.
So I paid no attention to the clamoring of my lady bits, and focused on the incredible creature in front of me. His skin was similar to a human’s, maybe slightly tougher. Since I couldn’t make any notes on paper, I made mental notes to myself as I examined him.
Skin similar to a human’s. Maybe a little tougher, less likely to tear or be cut, but definitely not impervious to injury.
“Are you healthy?” I said. “Have you had any injury or sickness?”
He smiled, which made my knees weak. To distract myself, I thought about what sort of naming structure could be used for a new species like his.
Humans are homo sapiens. Maybe the word alium for the first part of the naming structure would be appropriate. It meant other in Latin.
Alium. I liked that. But alium what?
“You’ve checked me over every month since you arrived,” he said, pulling me out of my thoughts about biology.
“You noticed?” I said, feeling my face heating.
“I did,” he said, those amber eyes gazing at me in a way that made my heart beat faster. “Was it coincidence that it was always you?”
Now it was my turn to give him a tiny smile. “No.” I walked back and opened a few drawers, looking for what I would need to take a blood sample, and giving myself a chance to recover my composure. “I liked doing your wellness exams.”
“Why?”
Maybe alium mutatio, I thought, as I rummaged through the drawer looking for alcohol swabs. Mutatio meant change in Latin. Or maybe alium superioris, since his species, with their shapeshifting and space travel abilities, were likely far superior to humans.
I turned back and stared at all six arms, wondering which one would be the best to take a blood sample from.
“You have veins and arteries like us?” I said.
“Why do you ask?”
“To take a blood sample.”
“No. No way. Absolutely not.”
“Please?” I said, badly needing to have a peek into alien physiology. “I’ll have a look here, and then destroy it. There’s the equipment right there. I promise it won’t go anywhere. No one will find out.”
“Okay,” he said, and I had a feeling that he didn’t really want me to collect so much information on him, but he was letting me. And I wondered why.
But at this point, I was in such a frenzy of scientific madness that I didn’t worry about why he was letting me take the blood sample, as long as he did.
“What are veins and arteries?”
I gave a quick explanation, and he agreed that his physiology was very similar to a human’s. In the crease of his elbow, I easily found a vein to take my blood sample from. I ripped the alcohol swab open, and the astringent smell hit my nose.
When his blood poured into the vial, it was a really dark blue, with a purple tint to it.
“You never answered my question,” he pointed out.
Damn. I was hoping he would have forgotten that. “I’ve always been drawn to you,” I said, pressing a bit of gauze to the needle hole in his blue skin and then putting a piece of medical tape over it. The ripping of the tape was loud in the quiet room.
“Hm,” he said, and I could feel the weight of his gaze on me.
“Why are you hiding?” I said, because that kind of seemed important. “Are you a criminal?”
The thought worried me, but deep down I reminded myself of the fact that I had always felt that he wasn’t dangerous, and he would never hurt me — whether he was a tiger, or a man, or an alien.
“I am a convicted criminal,” he said, and I looked up, surprised at his candid answer.
“What did you do?”
Lii’thoou dropped his eyes. “Murder. More than one.”
“What?” I said, shocked. I backed up, all desire to examine him vanishing immediately. He didn’t seem to notice, lost in his own terrible memories.
“There was a blood feud between my family and another family on K’nythia. It had been going on for hundreds of years at that point. The youngest male in their family was a bit psychotic, and he got the idea to wipe our entire family off the map.
“He planned to kill all of us. Parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles. Babies, for goodness’ sake. Everyone.
“At a family gathering. We were all supposed to be there. Except my cousin, who was away working in the outer rim.”
I swallowed, unable to process what he was telling me.
“I should have died too. I was supposed to die. But I was late that day. Traffic. When I got to my grandfather’s 200th birthday party, they were all … dead. Even the children.”
“Jesus,” I said. I couldn’t even imagine that kind of loss and how anyone survived it. I stepped back towards him, putting my hand on one forearm. “That’s awful.”
“I swore that I would avenge them all.” Lii’thoou glanced up at me then, and he clenched all six of his hands into fists. “That I would take out every single person who was involved. The people who had done the job, and those responsible for putting the hit out.”
I put my hand over my mouth. The loss of my husband now seemed small in comparison. My pain insignificant compared to what he had gone through. I blinked back tears.
“And I did,” he said, dropping his eyes to the floor again. “Every last one of them paid for what they had done. But then the Galactic Police caught me.”
I swallowed hard.
“Did you escape from jail?” I said. “And that’s why you’re hiding out here?”
He shook his head.
“I served my time.”
“How long?”
“A hundred years.”
I frowned.
“And I’ve been on parole for the past fifty years.”
I flinched.
“I’m older than I look,” he said.
“How old?”
“Two hundred and seventy-three.”
I blinked. “That’s really…”
“I know. Our people are longer-lived than you humans. It has to do with some genetic enhancements that happened quite a long time ago. And also that we’ve learned how to provide our bodies with exactly what they need in order for them to last a long time.”
“Hm.”
“Alyssa…”
“Yeah?”
“Do you have any other questions about me?”
“How far away is your home planet?”
“Far. Thousands of light years.”
“How did you get here?”
“We have faster-than-light-speed travel.”
“Do you have to go into stasis or something for the trip?”
He smiled, amused. “We’re pretty far past that.”
“Will you tell me about it?”
“Sure,” he said, with a shrug. “Space travel is easy and sim
ple. I’m just an average guy, so I couldn’t tell you how any of it works. It just does.
“We have AI, advanced space travel, cloning, and virtual reality that compared to yours is like the difference between one of your greatest artist’s works and a child’s crayon drawing. And … well, a bunch of other stuff your species probably hasn’t even dreamed of yet.”
“Wow,” I said, so impressed. I was a serious sci-fi fan, and hearing that so many things that I had thought were fiction were actually real was really exciting. And I was happy he had chosen me to confide in. “Wait. So you’ve really been alive for almost three hundred years?”
He nodded, studying me from where he sat on the examining table.
So much for my attraction to him. Gah. It would be like being interested in one of my grandfather’s friends. Totally weird.
“Because we age differently from humans, we have a longer adolescence and young adulthood. I am older than you,” he said, as if he had read my mind. “But there isn’t that much difference.”
“Yeah, sure, whatever,” I said, with a shrug. “Doesn’t matter to me.”
He got a thoughtful look on his face. “Maybe I shouldn’t have told you,” he said. “Do you want me to mind wipe you?”
“What?” I said, shocked. “No, no, God, no. Please…”
He started to laugh.
“Oh, shit. You’re messing with me,” I said, feeling a little overwhelmed.
“Yeah. I can’t do that. The technology exists, but … sorry. Not funny, huh?”
I took a shaky breath and stepped back, plopping into a chair.
“Alyssa?” he said, concern in his voice. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” I said, my mind buzzing. “It’s just a lot to take in.”
He jumped off the examining table, which creaked as his not inconsiderable weight left it. Then he knelt beside me and took my hand. His skin was softer than I had expected.
“You can’t tell anyone,” he said again. “You know it wouldn’t go well.”
“Of course not,” I said. “But…” I gazed into his eyes, puzzled.
“But what?”
“Why did you tell me? Isn’t it dangerous to tell anyone about you?”
He gave one serious nod.
“Have you told anyone else?”
He shook his head. “I haven’t spoken to anyone in my whole time on Earth.”
“And how long have you been on Earth?”
“Three years.”
“Three years?” I said. “Three years in this zoo?”
He nodded.
“How are you not insane?”
“You always talked to me,” he said, as if that explained things.
Not exactly the same thing as a real conversation, but okay.
“But why now?”
“I don’t know,” he said, getting up and pacing. The bottom set of hands went in the pockets of his shorts. The second set was crossed on his chest, and the top right hand ran its fingers through his hair, which in this form was short and black, exactly like in his human form.
I wondered briefly if it was the same hair. But he was going on with his thought, and I tried to pay attention to what he was saying. “I guess I’ve always been drawn to you, too. And last night, something changed. I couldn’t … I just couldn’t do this anymore.”
“Do what?” I said, when he stopped pacing and stared down at me, his amber eyes standing out strangely in his blue face. And as he gazed down at me, all his arms relaxed at his sides now, I felt my heart stutter and I couldn’t look away.
“I couldn’t be alone anymore.” One hand reached out and gently tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear.
“What are we going to do?” I said, all thoughts of measurement-taking and biological naming conventions gone from my mind.
There was an alien. On Earth. And I got to be the first person to talk to him.
And he liked me, which was kind of weird, but super cool, too. And … and … now what? This wasn’t how it usually happened in the movies at all.
“What are we going to do?” he repeated, dropping his hand. His eyebrows drew together, and a thoughtful expression came over his face as he went over to the calendar hanging on the wall and ran his finger over it.
“What’s the date?” he said, and I told him, waiting impatiently for him to say something. He gave a nod, and then counted from today’s date to another one at the end of the month.
“Sixteen.”
“Lii’thoou?” I said, getting tired of him staring at the calendar when something so momentous was happening. “What are we going to do?”
He frowned, and appeared to finally be thinking about my question. I tried to be patient, my fingers fluttering against my thigh.
I expected him to suggest something serious.
Something dangerous.
Something life-changing.
Or at least something weird.
“Lii’thoou?” I said again when he still didn’t answer.
“What are we going to do?” He gave me a grin. “Well, I’ve always wanted to see a movie.”
8
Lii’thoou
This whole movie thing was pretty low tech, but I didn’t care.
Alyssa had invited me out, and I had taken my usual human form. She had brought her daughter, Zoe, to the movie. I hadn’t realized how much I had missed having children around until I saw her sweet little girl. There was always something so beautiful about a child, especially a baby who you knew wasn’t going to form any judgments about you.
I glanced over at Alyssa where she sat on the grass, with Zoe in her lap. It was after sunset, and we were at an outdoor movie in the park, which she had thought would be better for the baby.
Alyssa looked particularly pretty tonight, her eyes shining with happiness. I wondered about that. In the time that I had known her, I had seen many expressions on her face, but now it struck me that happiness wasn’t usually one of them.
“Thanks for inviting me tonight,” I said, leaning over and whispering in her ear.
On the crude screen, some cute animated characters were singing about finding someone who you had lost somewhere out there. The song was haunting and beautiful. And I had to admit that it was twisting my heartstrings a little, and making me homesick.
“My pleasure,” she said, smiling. “I should get out and do things like this more with Zoe. But usually I’m too tired, and just put on my pajamas instead. It’s nice to actually do something for a change. Other than working at my second job, I mean.”
She smiled at me, and then kissed Zoe on the head. The baby looked sleepy, like she was going to drop off at any moment. Her big brown eyes closed, then popped open again, then closed again.
“Do you have movies where you’re from?” she said, keeping her eyes on the screen.
“Uh, yes,” I said, unsure how to answer her question. I didn’t want to offend her by telling her about our version of a movie.
She turned her head to look at me. “Is it really amazing?”
I chuckled. “Yes.”
“Can you tell me about it?”
I looked around. Alyssa had chosen a spot far from the other people, so if Zoe fussed she wouldn’t disturb everyone. The grass was cool, and the fresh smell of the nearby forest wound around us.
“Sure. It’s an immersive experience. You know how when you read a book, you feel like you’re really there?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, it’s like that. But you experience everything through your senses. You get into an experience pod, and it’s like you’re really there.”
“You mean, you would smell the flowers?”
“Exactly,” I said, struggling a bit to convey it to her. “But it’s more than that. If the character is sad, you actually feel sad. The biotech is highly developed.”
“Wow, it sounds amazing,” Alyssa said, still looking at me and ignoring the movie.
“It is. It’s also addicting. Some peopl
e would get lost in the stories forever, if they could. There are certain safeguards in place so that doesn’t happen.”
“Did anyone ever…?” Alyssa stopped, a concerned look in her eyes.
“What, go into an experience pod and never come out? Yes. There were a few.
“Eventually, they just died. Their brains believed they were healthy, because the characters they were inhabiting were. But in real life, their bodies were slowly wasting away.
“When people found out, there were laws put in place, which mandated that the pods monitor vital signs and spit the user out if there were any problems. It hasn’t happened since then.”
She shuddered. “It’s perfectly safe,” I went on. “You’d love it.”
Not that it mattered. Because she would never see one.
“Yeah, well, I don’t expect I’ll ever get to try one,” she said, with a regretful look.
“Of course not,” I said. “I’m just saying, if you did…” Okay, Lii’thoou, just shut up now.
“My husband loved movies,” she said, in a completely different tone of voice.
She was talking about her ex-husband? I didn’t know if that was good or bad. “So, he left you and Zoe, then?” Quite the schmuck, in my books.
Her smile got sad. “No. He … died, almost two years ago.”
“Died?” Oh shit. “I’m so sorry, Alyssa,” I said. “I didn’t know.”
“I know you didn’t. That’s why I’m telling you. Someone came into his office and opened fire. A bunch of people died. He wasn’t the only one.”
“That must have been so hard.”
“It was,” she said, picking at the grass. “I’d just gotten pregnant with Zoe. And I had to go through all the baby stuff while grieving. It … really sucked.”
I nodded, taking her hand.
“But I’m sure it wasn’t as hard as losing your entire family at once, Lii.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t play the whose pain is worse than whose game,” I said. “You’ve clearly been through a lot, and look at you. You’re still working, taking care of your baby, paying the bills.”
Alyssa dropped her eyes. “You don’t know how close I come some days to just pulling the covers up over my head and saying to hell with all my responsibilities.”
She drew in a shaky breath, and I scooted closer. “But you don’t do that,” I said, lifting her chin to make her look at me. “No matter how much you want to. That’s what makes you so strong.”
