by Gayle Keo
When Aileen entered the cockpit, Raegnor and Bearyan didn’t even notice her standing in the doorway. The god-awful noise blared from a device hanging on the wall to her left. It’s music, she thought, whatever the hell this noise is—to them it’s music. She pressed the red button on the device, instantly ceasing the garble.
“What in the void?” Bearyan growled, turning around with his bushy white eyebrows arched and his gigantic hand pressed firm over his heart. Was that where his heart was? Aileen wondered. Raegnor nearly fell out of the pilot’s chair with laughter at Bearyan’s fear.
“I didn’t mean to frighten you, Bearyan,” Aileen said with a calm smile. “I need to speak to both of you. You are being quite loud. I understand that this is our first night on the mission, but I need you to keep quiet. There is a lot weighing on my mind right now and I need to rest.”
“Oi, we’re sorry, ain’t we, Bear?” Raegnor said sarcastically, slapping Bearyan’s trunk of a shoulder. “It’s just been ages since we been off Earth together and we got a little preoccupied with the fizzure, is all.”
“I can see that,” she said. “How much of that stuff have you two had?”
“Not enough,” Bearyan chuckled, taking a swig. Watching him was like watching a regular sized person drink from a toy teacup.
“Well, I’d call it enough,” Aileen said firmly. “You both should call it a night.”
Raegnor rolled over again with laughter.
“You’ll have to excuse him,” Bearyan said. “He’s had a little too much, and he gets too entitled when he drinks.”
“Well maybe Raegnor should learn how to handle his fizzure a little more responsibly,” Aileen said, beaming at Raegnor.
“Right, I’ll listen to you when the moons of Draithrlen hang over Ky9!” Raegnor emptied another bottle and threw it under the control panel where it landed, shattering.
“You’d think they’d learn to manufacture this stuff a little more safely,” Bearyan said. “Listen, Captain. I’ll clean that mess up in the morning. And excuse my counterpart, here. It’s best to just ignore him, really.”
When Bearyan stood up from the co-pilot chair he had to crouch about half his height, and still his back was against the ceiling of the cockpit. “I’m going to get some shut eye,” he grumbled, his mane grazing against Aileen as he passed the doorway. Would it be impolite to reach out and pet one little tuft?
She resisted her urge and instead watched Bearyan slowly creep down the ship’s hallway, careful not to hit his head on stray pipes. With the co-pilot chair open, Aileen took a seat, and she felt the rush of heat left over from Bearyan. Sitting across from her, Raegnor reached over, hit the red button on the music device, leaned back in the chair and pressed a fresh bottle of fizzure to his mouth.
Okay, so this one was more resistant than Bearyan. Still, she needed to gain his respect and show him who was boss. If the authoritative method wouldn’t work, she would try mimicry. “What’s that stuff taste like, anyway?” she asked, leaning back in her chair, trying to enjoy the scrambling noises.
Taking his time with one big gulp, Raegnor let out a raspy breath and said, “Grapes, bubblegum, motor oil, and tar.” Aileen expected a laugh but he was more serious than she’d ever seen him. “And it’s voiding delicious,” he continued, licking his lips. He extended the bottle out to her and said, “Like to try a bit, Captain?”
While she could have lived without the smug intonation of her title, she took the bottle up from him, accepting the fact that if she were to gain his trust she would have to buddy up to him eventually. With the bottle inches beneath her nose, she got a strong hit of the tar and motor oil Raegnor spoke of.
“Well, bottoms up,” she said, wrapping her lips around the mouth of the bottle. She swallowed the purple liquid in gulps. The effect was instantaneous—not only did the fizzure burn her tongue, cheeks and throat, but a sensation like fire singed her fingers and toes. It was like taking 151 to the face only tenfold. Releasing the bottle from her mouth, some of the purple liquid drizzled down her chin.
“Easy, Ai,” he said. Nobody had ever called her ‘Ai’. She would have retorted but she was trying put out the fire burning in her veins from the fizzure.
“Water,” she said, gasping. Raegnor reached under the control panel and fetched one from the cooler. She tore the cap off and poured the entirety of the bottle down her throat.
“Ain’t no joke, is it?” Raegnor smiled.
“No,” Aileen answered. “Ain’tno joke.” She handed the bottle back to him. Well, handed wouldn’t be the right word. He took the bottle with his tail, wrapping it around the nose and carrying to his own hand. Raegnor’s bright blue eyes sparked white after each pull from the fizzure bottle.
Agent Hendricks failed to properly introduce her to the duo, who seemingly worked as a pair for decades. Would it be rude to ask personal questions about them? What even constituted ‘personal’ with extraterrestrials? They both wore clothes like humans did, they could both speak English (and several other languages) like humans did, and their had distinct personalities like humans did. Why was she so shy about the whole thing? Fuck it, she thought, I’m drunk, or wasted from whatever stuff is. Just ask.
“Okay,” she said, “So are you both from different planets? Are you from the same planet? Are you the same species? How did you meet Agent Hendricks? What was the evolutionary process like to get your tongue that long?”
Her questions were completely serious. At least she thought so, until Raegnor blew up with hysterical laughter. This guy really needs to stop drinking, she thought. Then again, she had barely heard him make a peep before they busted into the fizzure. Maybe it was his one way of breaking out of his shell. Everybody had his or her vices.
“Slow the train, Cap,” he said. “There’s enough about the galaxy to learn in a lifetime, let alone one night. Long story short, yes Bear and me are from different planets. No, I ain’t never seen a brute as big as him, either. I am from Ůndradandrů but when pirates murdered my parents I was taken to the planet Ky9 and raised there. Agent Hendricks recruited me and I’ve been residing on Earth for three years.”
Holy shit, Aileen thought. She really needed to go to sleep. “I’m so sorry,” she said, not knowing what to say.
“Sorry for what?” Raegnor asked.
“Sorry for your loss,” Aileen said.
“Ah,” he understood. “My loss. And I too, am sorry for yours.”
They both went silent. Her eyes were locked in the hypnotic ray of blue coming from Raegnor’s face. There was one thing Aileen could count on: pain was universal.
“As for the lug,” Raegnor continued, referring to Bearyan, “He’s from Fulgurator—or Jupiter, in your language. It is why he wanted to take this job—because you are from the same solar system, you and him.”
“How many solar systems are there?” she asked, shaking at how much more expanse existence as she knew it was.
“Oi, in this galaxy?”Raegnor asked, looking up calculatedly. “Billions.Many billions. I mean, we’re talking a hundred thousand light years here, right?” The way he spouted these facts made it obvious that it was all common knowledge to him. Meanwhile, Aileen sat clueless, wondering if she could handle some more fizzure.
“My point,” Raegnor continued, “is that if I start going into the scientific details of all this, it will be a data overload. Trust me.”
He stretched back in the chair, taking in the jumbled warble from the music device. His blue eyes closed and he opened his mouth to sing along. Aileen couldn’t identify the language but she was certain it was not of Earth. When the chorus of the song ended, there was a chain of repetitive noises. This is like techno-jazz from the future, Aileen thought. Raegnor opened his mouth and stretched out his tongue, waving it to the rhythm of the harmonic static.
Its serpentine movement entranced her—the control he had over that thing was incredible. He hadn’t yet answered why his species from Ůndradandrů need such a long tongue. S
he found herself sticking out her own tongue, giving Raegnor another smirk.
“You are one silly Captain, Ai,” he said, his tongue still floating to the music, his words barely more than mumbles.
“You may address me as Captain Miroki,” Aileen said sternly. Raegnor rolled his eyes. She had to stop barking orders. It was like he ignored that form of communication altogether. “My tongue doesn’t do that, see?” she asked, sticking out her tongue again. “And I don’t have a tail,” she said, jumping up and sticking her butt in the air. She shook her hips and tried moving to the music.
Raegnor stood up, sucked his tongue back into his mouth, and held his face with both hands. Shaking his head, he walked over to her. “I really think you should go to bed, now,” he said. “Even for a human, you are acting pretty weird.”
“Lighten up, stiffy,” she said, poking him in the chest, continuing her hideous dance. “This isn’t weird, this is funky.”
Funky?Seriously, Aileen?she thought. The fizzure was doing a number on her nerves. She felt an intrepid vibration from all things around her.
“Right,” Raegnor said. “Funky.” He tried to lead her out of the cockpit and to her bunk, but she refrained.
“My ship, my rules,” Aileen said. Raegnor’s blue, luminescent eyes rocked back and forth with the sway of Aileen’s body.
“You want to know the use for the Ůndradandrůan tongue, Captain Miroki?” Raegnor asked. Could he read minds like Agent Hendricks?
“I’m just fascinated by evolution,” she answered.
“I can show you,” he said, “but there is one important thing you must understand about this organ.”
“Tell me,” she said, her eyelids wide with excitement.
“If this organ is handled improperly, I could die,” he said. “So the fact that I let it out around you means I trust you.”
“Wow,” she whispered. “I see. I had no idea. Well, thank you, Raegnor. That means a lot to me.”
“But that is not the use for the organ, Captain,” he continued. “Now that you understand the fragility of this organ, it is important that you understand why we Ůndradandrůans also have this appendage.” His tail drifted behind him.
“Please, Raegnor, show me,” she said. “You don’t understand; I’ve spent my life studying the physics of Earth life. Your very existence and everything about you baffles me.”
“I see,” Raegnor said quietly. “Well, in that case I will show you. However, you need to take a seat first, Captain.”
“Okay,” she said, seating herself back into the co-pilot’s chair. “Is it a fighting tactic to knock predators off their feet?”
“Something like that,” Raegnor said, dropping to his knees in front of the chair. He placed his hands on her pants and tugged softly.
“What are you doing?” she yelped, jumping up, unprepared for his action.
“I’m showing you, like you asked,” he said. “Please hold still, I have done this before. You are perfectly safe, okay?”
“Sure,” she said, never having second-guessed her safety during this demonstration. When his hands returned to her pants, she felt something tickle the back of her hair and neck. She realized it was Raegnor’s tail, circling around her neck, tighter and tighter with each curl. “Are you trying to choke me?” she gasped.
“No, Captain, I’m not trying to choke you,” he whispered, her pants halfway down her legs. “Ůndradandrůan males must secure the recipient because once the muscle is inside, I am not safe. So if you try to kill me, I have the upper hand.”
This was all taking a turn she did not expect.
“What do you mean ‘once the muscle is inside’?” Aileen demanded.
The tail around her neck was just tight enough to keep her still, but she could feel the strength behind it. He could strangle her if he wanted to. “My tongue, of course, Captain,” he said, smiling. Once the pants were off, all that remained between Aileen and Raegnor were here soft, white cotton panties. She could feel that they were already moist from her genitalia.
“Raegnor, I don’t know about this,” she whimpered. “I didn’t expect you to take off my clothes. On my planet, this type of thing is frowned upon.”
“But Captain,” he said, the fur from his tail tickling her neck. “I can smell the increase of sodium between your legs from here. That means you enjoy the experience, am I correct?”
“I—I—,” she stammered as the enormous tongue grazed her leg; she couldn’t stop her eyes from rolling back. The connection of his muscle tissue against her flesh released a chemical in her that made her brain feel high.
“I will take that a yes, my Captain,” he hissed, his tongue caressing her skin in one long trail from her knee to her labia.
“Wait, Raegnor, please, this a direct order, I…” she moaned. But it was too late. With his edged face grazing her inner thighs, his tongue had already made its way deep into her pussy. He looked into her, unblinking, with his iridescent eyes, his mouth open wide and pressing his rough lips to the outside of her groin.
The force of the tongue in her was immense and with every tiny flick from the muscle a spasm coursed through one of her limbs. First her legs kicked, then her arms wrapped around the co-pilot seat like a pretzel. Raegnor released his finger from the panties he was holding back and took one of Aileen’s feet in each hand. While he unlaced her boots, she looked down and was lost in the wave of blue filling the dark cockpit.
His tongue filled her deeper then anything she had ever taken inside her hot sheath. After her boots fell off, the socks came next, and soon her bare feet were in his jagged hands, high up in the air. Raegnor spread her legs wide, his tongue pressing against the edges of her orifice.
As soon as her nipples got hard and the goose bumps rose up her skin, she knew her orgasm was approaching. Raegnor tightened his tail around her neck, making it more difficult to breathe, but not too difficult. She embraced the tension that he applied, letting her know that this torrential orgasm was in safe hands—and tail.
Aileen screamed—there was nothing less she could do as her hips throttled, releasing a fountain of thick liquid onto Raegnor’s tongue. The secretion dripped down his tongue, and Raegnor smiled as it went into his mouth. Meanwhile, Aileen held on to the chair tight while his tongue swam in circles inside her—the power of the orgasm sending her body into wild flailing motions.
As Raegnor’s tongue retracted from her pussy, Aileen felt the rest of her body go limp, nearly sliding out of the chair. Practically drooling, she had no control of her body and her eyes started to roll back in a sleepy bliss. Raegnor picked her up from the chair, resting her over his shoulder. He carried Aileen to her bunker, opened the hatch, and laid her inside.
“Sleep tight, Captain Miroki,” he said. “Now you will rest very peacefully.” Raegnor shut the door of the bunker and Aileen passed out.
*****
The Tower Cadet, minutes from landing on Woes Ëan, hovered in orbit while Aileen and the guys developed a plan to retrieve data from a secret base hidden in the sand. According to Agent Hendricks, there was a biological nanodevice that contained a compound able to restore the stasis of a decimated Earth. After a week with Raegnor and Bearyan, Aileen found that that they had both grown to respect and appreciate her sense of urgency for the mission. They listened to her ideas, and capped the fizzure consumption to four bottles a night.
Though Raegnor didn’t say a word about what happened the first night on the ship, from that point on he lowered the unnecessary humor, focusing on the task at hand. Earth was as much a home to Raegnor and Bearyan as it was to Aileen, and if they could get their hands on the nanodevice they would save billions of lives. It felt good to be relieved of her physical stress, and Aileen found that the orgasm actually helped her mind think more carefully and tactfully.
Bearyan’s biggest concern about the operation was one particular life form that resided on Woes Ëan. “Disgusting parasite,” Bearyan said. “Last thing you want to come face to f
ace with. And if you do come face to face with one… run like the devil.”
Raegnor nodded in agreement, plugging the electra-cartridge into his pistol. “Last time I was here a Lysthaurus nearly nabbed my tail,” he laughed, cleaning the pistol’s barrel.
“Well, lets make sure that nobody gets nabbed this time,” Aileen said, looking from Bearyan to Raegnor. Agent Hendricks had made the mission very clear: once they were in the outer orbit of Woes Ëan they would have exactly one hour upon landing on the planet to infiltrate the base, retrieve the biological nanodevice, and escape back to the Tower Cadet. Her initial response to Agent Hendricks was that it would be impossible to do something so risky in less than an hour, but both Raegnor and Bearyan reassured her that they had it in the bag.
Aileen’s father had installed a cloaking device onto the ship, which allowed them to land on the desert planet without being seen. The view from the ground proved even more barren than the view from the top of the planet. Aileen squinted her eyes in wonder at the endless sea of grey sand.
“The base is just a few yards north,” Raegnorsaid, his blue eyes less luminescent in the bright light from the yellow Woes Ëan sky.
Aileen nodded and closed the hatch of the ship. “Do you think you can guide us there?” she asked.
“I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t, Captain,” Raegnor winked, taking the lead north.
“After you, Captain,” Bearyan replied, gesturing for Aileen to go before him. “I will cover you from back here.” That made sense, he was the biggest of the bunch and could take on any sneak attacks.
