by Ruby Scott
Jen felt a confusing mixture of joy and rage when her eyes locked with his, and the hope in his eyes turned to fear. She was a full foot shorter than him, but she felt him shrink back when she squared her shoulders and began to shout.
“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Pardon?” Owen asked hesitantly. He took a step back as Jen rushed forward and pressed her face as close to his as it would get.
“What. The. Fuck. Are. You. Doing. With. Me?” she reiterated through gritted teeth. “I look out the window, and it looks like we’re flying through space. What did you do to me?” she gasped. “What did you have your driver do to me?”
“Nothing!” Owen said, throwing his hands up in defense and Jen tries to push even closer to him. Her chest brushed against him as she backed him against a bookcase, unable to contain her rage and terror. “Oliver didn’t do anything! Nothing besides follow my orders!”
“And what were your orders?” Jen shot back. “To lull me into a false sense of security and then make me think I’m going crazy?”
“You’re not—“
“Let me leave,” she cut in. “Just let me go. I won’t call the cops, I won’t sue you, I won’t see you again—just let me go, please. I’m not interested in any mind games. I’ll even get my own ticket back.” I knew this was too good to be true.
“Jennifer, please!” Owen said, his voice taking on a note of panic. “Please, just listen. I asked Oliver not to say anything, in case it alarmed you, but I see maybe I shouldn’t have told him that. You trust him more than me, it seems.”
Jen scoffed at the miserable tone of his voice. “You’re trying to make think this house is a spaceship.”
Owen shook his head. “Not the whole house; just the study and one of the kitchens.”
When she saw that he was serious, she burst out laughing. “Okay, now I see what’s going on.”
He brightened, and it made his sharp features even more handsome. “You do?”
Jen nodded, feeling her full lips curve upward in a stiff smile. “You’re…eccentric. Maybe you’re legitimately mentally ill, maybe you just like fucking with people…but you must have lots of family money and a very loving family member to help humor you.” She gestured toward the window, where Saturn’s rings were starting to take shape in the distance. “What is that, a projector screen? Did Uncle Oliver help you set it up? Is that why he asked me to humor you?”
Owen frowned, and he seemed angry now. “Humor me? Is that what he told you?”
Jen paused, realizing too late that this was a misstep. What if Oliver really is just a semi-willing captive in this situation? “No, he didn’t say that,” she remedied. “He said…to consider what you said before I made any…rash decisions.”
“Like demanding to be taken back?” Owen said dryly.
Jen shot him a glare. Then a thought crossed her mind: why was she not angrier? Her temper could be legendary when it came to being toyed with; why had she not already laid this man flat on his back with her astoundingly strong sucker punch? Then she remembered the odd smell of the curtains, and how still the confusion and awe inside her felt—almost like they were in the process of being frozen immobile.
“You did drug me!”
“Only a little,” he said quickly. “Just enough to keep you calm during the flight. But not anything to influence your choices, and nothing to knock you out. Just enough so your body wouldn’t stress about the flight. ”
“So you’re still going with the spaceship story?” Jen asked.
Owen looked at a loss for words, and it scared her. It scared her even more that he didn’t appear to look guilty, only angry and afraid. She looked back out the window at Saturn, whose rings were wide and thin like halos on an angel. It floated past—or rather, they floated past it—and something snapped like a dry twig in her mind. She couldn’t find much specific about him online, and he didn’t have any family in the country. The vibration of the house made much more sense as a side effect of takeoff, and even the eccentric coloring make more sense.
Her eyes settled on the twinkles between the velvety blackness of space, and she realized her body wasn’t even registering the motion of the ship any longer. A soon as she had the thought, Jen felt the rest of the floor drop out from the bottom of her comfortable, complacent universe: she was in a spaceship with her new husband, who was very likely not human. She was in a spaceship with her alien fiancé hurtling toward an unknown and most likely far away destination. She was on a spaceship.
“I’m on a spaceship,” she said quietly.
“You’re on a spaceship,” Owen confirmed. He waited for her to say something else, but when nothing came, he motioned to the chair she was sitting in. “Shall we? I’d love to explain before you demand to go home again. At least a little.”
Jen moved over to the chair, partially because she felt her legs were going to give out anyway. “I can’t make any promises,” she grumbled. Her eyes kept darting between the windows and Owen, whose face was breathtaking even when he was worried. Why do I want to kiss you so badly?
“That’s fair,” he said. “I don’t expect you to after how poorly I’ve handled this. I’m sorry.” He bit his lip and seemed to want to say more, but he changed his mind.
Jen ignored his apology. “So you’re an alien?”
Owen’s eyes widened in surprise. “Uh…yes. I assumed you would think I was just a human with a spaceship, but I’m glad I don’t have to explain that part.”
“Why do you look so human?” Jen asked.
“I believe your planet’s Darwin called it convergent evolution,” he said matter-of-factly. “Our two species developed similar traits and appearances because of similar environments and needs.”
Jen blinked. “I didn’t know it was that simple.”
“It is. And we’ve been studying and working with your people for a long time—even learned a great deal from them.”
“Like what?”
Owen’s face grew pensive. “About your cultures, mainly, but you also taught us more than a few neat tips and tricks. We started to more efficiently harness the wind on our planet shortly after we studied your wind energy, for example. It’s increased efficiency by eighty percent globally.”
Jen frowned in confusion. “You guys run on mostly clean energy? I think we probably have more to learn from you.”
“Each of us could still stand to learn from the other,” Owen said. “And that is where you come in.” He smiled, and the intensity sent a tingle down her spine.
She sat up straighter in the soft leather chair. “What do you mean?”
The alien sighed and leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees. “Our people, the Karifans, have been keeping a brittle peace with our neighboring planet, Tryllmod, for hundreds of years now. Recently, our neighbors decided they wanted to renegotiate their terms of the peace settlement.” He looked her in the eye, and his gaze was sorrowful. “They let us know this by launching weapons into our atmosphere that killed thousands of our people at a time.”
Jen gasped and clapped her hand to her chest. “Someone is trying to wipe out your species?”
“Not wipe it out,” Owen said bitterly. “That would call too much attention to us from the intergalactic council. They just want to make us hurt until we have to give in.”
Despite her anger, Jen was leaning forward in her seat, trying to hear Owen’s soothing voice better, and catch a whiff of the maddening scent he was giving off. “And what do they want?”
“A crop of ours,” he answered, clasping his large, somewhat tanned hands together in front of him. “It’s called the Ula. It resembles corn here on Earth, but golden and silver, like chunks of the precious metal themselves. It sustains our bodies for extraordinarily long times, gives us minor healing powers, and contributes to your longevity.”
“How long do you live?” she asked curiously.
Owen looked uncomfortable. “About six hundred years.”
Jen snorted, then realized he was serious. “Oh, shit.”
“Yeah,” he said, and his eyes were looking everywhere but at her.
Anger started to build in her chest again. “So…we get married and then after eighty years I just die? What is it I’m supposed to be doing for you anyway?”
“I’m getting to that,” he snapped, then immediately sighed and closed his eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m a little antsy because I’m hoping you’ll say yes.”
Jen laughed bitterly, and it stirred pain in the alien’s features. “In case you haven’t noticed, you have me flying through space on a fucking spaceship, Owen. I can’t exactly go anywhere.”
“But if you wanted to leave I wouldn’t stop you, and I’d turn the ship around,” he said fervently. “And I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do, physically or emotionally. If you decide to just tell me to fuck off, I’ll still help you with your clothing company.”
Jen stared at him for a long while, looking into his cobalt eyes suspiciously. He was gazing back at her calmly, his beautiful features so well composed that she almost had the urge to hit him. His earnestness bothered her even more than his placidity; he seemed to want to make her happy so genuinely and at the expense of anything else that it was almost suspicious. She wanted him to show emotion as badly as she herself wanted to be furious, hysterical, violent—but she couldn’t find any cause to.
Jen assumed it was because of the drugs, but she couldn’t discount the chemistry she knew as between them. Her hands still wanted very badly to touch him, but she couldn’t allow herself to give in while she still didn’t know what was going on. Jen glared at him, but she couldn’t find a trace of deceit, and it frightened her that he was being so open and vulnerable to her. Had he always been this way? He always seemed honest and eager, sure, but now he was looking at her as though she was their only hope. His people must really need my help, she realized.
Jen sighed. “Okay,” she said finally. “Tell me how I can help.”
Owen wasted no time. “The Tryllmods have a power source on their planet that enables them to launch missiles and other weapons. Since they derive their energy for daily life from the planet itself, this gem they use is only for destruction. “
“Gem?”
“Exactly what it sounds,” Owen said in response to her confusion. “A large gemstone that crackles with energy that they can harness. It’s called Truximite, and it resembles onyx in color.” Owen waved his hand a projection screen appeared in mid-air, displaying a jagged rock about the size of Jen’s head. He turned back to her, his features moving across her face as though he wanted to memorize every shape and curve. It unnerved her, being examined so closely—and with such intimacy—by a person who had never seen her in person, but who seemed very fond of her indeed. The rock was colored pitch black and imbued with moving swirls of glistening grey material.
“I’ve never heard of that stone.” Jen looked at the projection uneasily.
“It’s not native to this galaxy,” he said. “It’s only found on a few planets, and Tryllmod is one of them. It harnesses the energy of the atmosphere, and on most planets, it will self-destruct in about a hundred years if it’s not tapped, or you can manipulate it to self-destruct.”
“How big is the blast?” Jen asked, picturing a crater in a planet, like one brought on by the comet that wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth.
“Big enough to take a planet,” he answered grimly, “and cause some damage to its moons, possibly. Total destruction of all life, irrevocably.” He locked eyes with her. “That’s why detonating it is our second choice.”
“I wouldn’t think it was a choice at all!” Jen said indignantly. “It sounds to me like you’re asking me to help you kill a bunch of innocent beings.”
“No,” Owen said heatedly. “I’m asking you to help save two planets, and then destroy one planet full of bloodthirsty monsters if the first plan doesn’t work.”
Jen laughed. “That’s hardly better. It sounds like you’re looking for easy solutions, no matter how cruel.”
Anger occupied his features for a split second, then slipped away.
“Then what do you suggest I do?” he asked, exasperated, and suddenly his eyes were brimming with barely contained emotion; the sight struck her heart abnormally hard, and she was suddenly filled with remorse for her flippancy.. “Ignore this? Let them keep going on and threatening us, killing us? Give them all of our Ula and destroy our lives and livelihood?”
“How about try it the non-violent way first?” Jen spat. “Besides, Mr. Alien Savior, you wrote that ad that I responded to. You knew exactly what you were seeking. Weren’t you looking for someone kind and upwardly mobile? You took care of the latter, now I call the shots with the former. Deal?” She glared at him, daring him to protest, and was infuriated to find that she still wanted to feel his body on hers, and the desire was nearing a distraction.
Owen looked taken aback—which satisfied her anger a little—and his skin flushed a light pink. “Deal. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Jen said. “I just need you to tell me one thing: where exactly do I come in?”
“Protective equipment,” he answered immediately. “I’ve seen your designs for protective combat suits, extra-reinforced SCUBA suits, cut-proof clothing…it’s all quite brilliant.” His eyes glimmered now, and Jen suddenly felt like she was being suffused with a light golden energy that stroked all of her cells like a shiatsu massage.
What the hell? she thought, but she was too blissful to be upset. Is he doing this on purpose?
“I know it sounds…saccharine,” he said, his skin flushing a deeper red. It was very endearing, and she had to struggle, again, to keep herself from running her hands across his body. “But I really admired your work as soon as I saw it. The Truximite emits a powerful wave of energy that destroys our bodies from the inside. We need help taking wave-blocking materials that occur naturally on our planet and making them into protective suits so we can go in and disable the stone. The truth is that I had been searching Earth for an apparel maker, specifically because our people do not traditionally wear much armor, even into battle.”
“How do you protect yourself on your own planet?” she asked.
“Our skin is very tough,” Owen said, “as are our muscle and skeletal systems. We could walk on the bottom of your ocean if we wanted to, or swim through lava.”
“Have you?” Jen asked curiously. She couldn’t help it; she kept picturing him striding at the bottom of the ocean, completely nude, muscles straining against the thousands of tons bearing down on him. She wondered how a body that strong would bear her body writhing on top of it, then quickly shut the image down. She licked her lips involuntarily, and his eyes darted to her mouth and took their time coming back up. Damn it, we can’t get off topic right now.
“Um, yes,” Owen said finally. “Well, not the ocean, the creatures down there are terrifying. But I have done the lava dip. It feels great, probably like how hot tubs feel to humans. Very refreshing and almost cleansing.”
Jen shivered. “That sounds hellish.”
He shrugged. “Anything is bearable if you have the right reasons for it.”
She laughed, and his face registered hurt for a few moments. “I’m sorry,” she said, and meant it. “It’s just…you seem terribly cheesy, very honest, and just all-around unbelievably sweet besides the kidnapping thing.” She gestured to the windows. “How did you decide that destroying an entire planet was an acceptable solution to this?”
He sighed. “It wasn’t, until recently,” he admitted.
Jen frowned. “When did it change?”
He mumbled something and dropped his eyes suddenly.
“What?” Jen said, leaning to try to hear him better.
Owen cleared his throat and raised his eyes to hers again, and Jen felt another current of energy shimmer through her body. “About two months ago, Jen. When I met you.”
You’re joking, she wa
nted to say—but after their short time together, she knew better than to suggest that. “Why would meeting you change your mind?” she asked instead, fighting a wave of guilt threatening to overcome her.
“Isn’t it obvious?” he asked. When she shook her head, he paused, staring at his hands for nearly a full minute. “I fell in love with you, Jen.”
She felt her eyebrows shoot up, and her heart skipped two full beats. “You’re…in love with me?”
“Yes,” he said, and the exasperation in his voice was clear, raw, and painful. “I’m in love with you. I fell in love with you when you told me about your dream of making the world a safer place for young women, and giving them protection in the meantime, while you find ways to fight those monsters. I fell in love with you watching the way you reacted to a new fabric or material, the sheer force of nature you became when you got an idea in your head. I fell in love with your body and how confident you are in it, even though I’ve still never touched you. I love you, Jen. I can’t deal with the idea of there being a world without you, and if the Tryllmods get past my planet, they’ll sack all the planets in any reachable habitable zone. Even if you won’t be with me, I can’t let that happen. I can’t let anything happen to you.”
He was reaching out to her now, and she’d reached out with her own hand; once their skin touched, it was like a match had been struck. Nerve endings sparkled to life, and the world snapped into a brighter hue before her eyes, the air became clearer and sweeter. Owen pulled her toward him and pressed his lips to hers, and her body reacted so strongly to his touch that it tore a gasp from her throat. Her pussy moistened, and she heard him moan lightly before pulling away—and as soon as he did, everything faded back to normal.
