by Gillian Zane
He spit out what could only be a curse in his language, and stood from the bed.
“I am needed on the bridge.” His face twitched in regret, and Bobbie sat up quickly, righting her dress again.
“Wait, what? You’ve got to be shitting me!”
“There is a situation.” Roc turned and pressed one of the symbols against the wall, the door slid open. She jumped off the bed, and hurried after Roc in her bare feet. She wasn’t going to let him off that easy. She knew he was aware of her following him, but he hurried along, down a long hall and through an expansive room that held all kinds of interesting items. Her steps slowed and she looked around in awe. What was this place? She wanted to stop and explore, but he wasn’t slowing down. She ran behind him in her bare feet to catch up. Looking over her shoulder at what appeared to be a large microwave with regret. She wanted to know what it was, but she wanted to know what Roc was about to do even more.
“Where are you going? What’s this situation?” Bobbie asked, panting slightly as she caught up to him. He was tall and his strides were long and hard to match.
“I have been hurt,” he said cryptically.
What does that mean? Bobbie didn’t know how to process that statement so she remained quiet next to him. Things were getting stranger and stranger.
12
Mid-flight mishaps
Roc’s luck had never been this misplaced in his century of life. But, seeing Bobbie’s creamy skin on display in his bed, hearing her soft little moans of excitement had distracted him. Distracted piloting was never a good thing. And now he was injured.
He traversed his ship with Bobbie trailing behind him. He had taken his largest S-Class because he didn’t know how long he would be away from his home planet and wanted to bring enough provisions to last at least a decade. The living quarters were located at the back of the ship, so it took them a few moments to get to the bridge.
He was already appraised of the situation, the injury was not that serious, but he winced when he saw Bobbie’s reaction and realized his mistake in letting her follow him. There was quite a lot of blood, and it made for a treacherous path on the silica floor.
His secondary manifestation was standing still at the helm, behind him the viewing screen was dark black, and he noted a few warning lights were flashing. The moment he was hurt he pulled consciousness away from his secondary manifestation in case the wound was serious. The pain had been great, so he couldn’t judge the seriousness of the wound in his current state.
“Holy alien balls,” Bobbie cried and rushed over to his secondary's side. “Your twin, what happened? Why isn’t he moving?” Her words were rushed and panicked. Roc took a moment to appreciate the concern she was showing to him.
“It is fine, I was—” He paused because he didn’t know the English word. “Replacing a converter, but I did not seat it properly within the access block. It expanded and impaled me in my shoulder,” Roc walked to his secondary and looked carefully at the converter embedded in his flesh. There was a cut that ran from his neck to his upper chest where the broken part had shattered and grazed him.
The suit his secondary wore was saturated in blood, which was the most worrying of this incident. He could only lose so much blood before his secondary would become too weak to be useful.
Roc punched in a few commands from the helm’s internal unit, and a magnetized gurney was belched up from the panel in the sidewall of the ship. He dragged it to his secondary, attached the medic cuffs to his wrists and ankles, and then activated them to get his body onto the gurney.
“How did you know he was hurt? Is it like a twin thing?” Bobbie asked as she inched closer to the gurney, looking down at his prone secondary manifestation. Roc looked up at her funny, before he could check his emotions. On Earth they had not discovered how to harness their own energy, which meant they had no concept of secondary manifestations. But he had to treat these injuries before they worsened. He wasn’t sure how he could explain this while he was tending to his wound. She kept saying this twin word, which he understood the concept, a match, or double. But he wasn’t sure how to explain the difference.
“I felt the pain,” he answered honestly and Roc began to treat the wounds, deftly extracting the shard of silica embedded in his shoulder. He didn’t have a full medical ward on this ship, only enough for first aid and not for the materialistic repairs. He could staunch the blood, seal the cuts, but there would be scarring, something that wasn’t common on his planet.
“How did you feel the pain?” Bobbie asked, stepping up to the gurney and letting her hand flutter over the blood-stained suit. Roc looked up and his face softened when he saw the concern on Bobbie’s facade. She frowned when she studied Roc’s face and didn’t find what she was looking for.
“At least tell me his name before he dies.” Her voice broke a bit.
“Dies?” Roc asked stupidly. “I will not die.”
“I know you won’t but, him, you are so frustrating, he can’t lose that much blood, right? That has to be bad? Is there a doctor on board? He’s not even breathing?”
“Everything is already repaired, I am fine,” Roc said, putting away the few implements he had used.
“Then why isn’t he breathing or anything?” Bobbie asked exasperated. Ignoring his narcissism, like she cared about him, she was worried about his twin.
“I forget that our nature will be hard to understand for you,” Roc said. He didn’t want to wake his secondary up because there would still be pain, but he did concentrate and start up his circulatory system again to help with healing.
Bobbie exclaimed as he began to breathe again. She held a palm to her mouth and looked at Roc in shock.
“Explain! Now!” She demanded, even stomping her foot, which he found kind of charming. “He was dead, and I didn’t even know his name. Tell me now, Roc! I’m tired of these games. You’ve kidnapped me, put me on a spaceship, heading to God-knows-where. I need some information, or so help me—,” Her lips pulled down into the most attractive little pout and Roc couldn’t help the smile that drew his mouth up. He wasn’t used to this unrestrained showing of his feelings. He had learned to keep them in check ever since his introduction to society.
“Stop smiling at me like an idiot. What’s his name?”
“Roc,” Roc did a slight head nod that was the equivalent to a human shrug, knowing he was being purposefully vague, but for some reason he was enjoying her anger. This was also new to him, he usually liked the few women he had engaged with to be compliant.
“Dammit, you’re such a dick. What is his name, why can’t you just answer that?”
“He is not a he, he is me," he said with his usual stoic face. "Rochford of Thames, son of Rochfordi, high Emperor of Polaridis. Me.” He pointed to himself and then his secondary.
“That’s not possible. I don’t know why you can’t just tell me about your twin. Is it not respectable on your planet? Is there some kind of anti-twin movement?” Bobbie’s voice didn’t sound as assured as she felt, he thought it was delightful.
"That word, again. I understand what it means to humans and why you would think this. Two cells within a womb, but I am not a twin. It is me, this body is part of me. Not a twin.”
“What the hell are you?” Bobbie couldn’t hide the frustration in her voice. And Roc knew he was making this explanation worse than it should be. More information was better. He had to go into detail if he didn’t want her to get the wrong impression of him. He could ruin everything by saying something misguided.
“I am a male of the Polaridi race. And with this distinction, I become more,” Bobbie frowned at him and he grappled with the language barrier that limited him. He had the basics of English down, but these topics were tough to convey in any language. What he wouldn’t give to have her modified with a translator, but that would take an amount of trust they did not share yet.
“What, like mitosis?” Bobbie laughed, but it didn’t sound amused, it sounded slightly hysterical.
Roc searched through his memories to see if he knew what this mitosis was, but it wasn’t registering.
“I do not know this mitosis,” he said and looked to her for clarification, but she was a little too pale, so he went on to try and get this explanation over with, concerned for her health. He wondered if human females fainted like Polaridi females.
“Remember, the energy we spoke of before?” He waited for her to nod, and when she did, he went on. “I am a male, and have a higher energy than others on Polaridis. My people absorb the photons from the suns. We also give off energy. At a point, the energy is too great to hold within us and we need another receptacle, and a male, like me,” he patted his chest, “splits to contain the extra energy.”
“Mitosis,” she repeated and then that laugh again and Roc frowned. “Like a clone, right? You have a damn clone? That’s kind of rude, though, that he doesn’t even get his own name?”
“I again am confused about this word, clone.”
“Like you split, your DNA splits and you make a second Roc, is that what happens? Sounds painful.”
“No, this is not a separate entity,” he gestured to his sleeping secondary. “I am one part of a whole. I am Roc. I am part of Roc. This body is Roc. That body is Roc. Like another leg, or arm, but much more. Yes, painful, but on Polaridis we have great Healers.”
"Holy shit." Bobbie slapped a hand over her mouth again, a bit green around the gills. Roc wanted to assist her, get her medical attention, but he could tell by the way she carried herself that he must keep his distance.
“The stronger you are, the more times you split. In my lifetime I have split four times. Two of my parts, the tertiary and quaternary manifestations are still on Polaridis. None of my manifestations are autonomous. It is how we accomplish so much. While I resided on Earth, I still did business on Polaridis.”
“I’m—well, that’s interesting,” Bobbie said looking down at Roc’s body. “Gives multi-tasking a whole new dimension.”
“I do like to multi-task,” Roc smiled, knowing this word was positive in the English language but Bobbie’s only response was to stare at him wide-eyed. For the first time in Roc’s long life, he felt the intense pang of self-doubt. If Bobbie rejected him, if she refused to honor the charge, he didn’t know what he would do. He had to make his life on Polaridis worth her giving up everything for. He had to make himself worth giving up everything for.
13
He speaks a strange language
The man Bobbie thought was the actual Roc sprayed something on the other guy’s chest and she watched in awe as the cut formed a crust along the ragged edge and sealed itself. The man lying on the gurney blinked and looked up at her. She took a step back.
“You’re looking at me with two sets of eyes?” He nodded and Bobbie shook her head, the possibilities freaking her out.
“By leaving half of myself on my planet, it also helps me travel faster than lightspeed, two parts want to be whole. It speeds up space travel. The separation can be disorienting and sometimes can be detrimental to our mental health, but it is a productive way of traveling.”
“So, you have four bodies, but one brain?”
“Technically I have four brains,” Roc one said.
“I’m so confused.” Bobbie collapsed into what she thought was a chair, but it rocked back and threw her off end over end. Hands were on her pulling her up and to her feet, one big arm held her tightly. She was pressed against one of their chests. Their? Was that the proper pronoun? She shook her head, she thought the new gender identities of her generation were confusing enough, how did this even compare?
“More brains mean I can focus on different tasks without my other manifestations having to concentrate, but we are all the same being. It is why I can recover from an accident, and my two parts back on my home planet can attend meetings, and this body can distract itself with the warm female pressed to its chest.”
“Oh,” Bobbie said, in perfect agreement that his warm chest was quite distracting. She glanced at the man on the gurney, his bright green eyes on her. His suit was still pulled down and there were small specks of blood on his bronze skin. The wound now looked nothing more than a week-old injury, scabbed over and raised.
“And I need to confess that our space travel does tend to make me disoriented at times, but can be combatted with distraction, and sexual interaction is on the top of my list as a favorite distraction.” She looked up at him and the alien actually winked. Winked at her!
“Sexual interaction?” Bobbie had been reduced to repeating everything, making her mind muddled.
“It is quite a pleasurable way to rectify the time displacement,” Roc, the one holding her against him, not the one lying on the gurney, said as if it was an obvious fact.
“You mean, because we are traveling faster than light? Isn’t that supposed to slow down time?” Bobbie gave herself a mental pat on the back because this had come so readily to her brain.
“I am pleased that you understand.” Roc smiled that awkward smile. “Two of my parts remain in Polaridis time, while two, these two manifestations on the ship, are traveling faster than the speed of light, but our consciousness is in sync. This means that two of my manifestations are greatly accelerated, while two function on normal Polaridis time. It can be disorienting. I would like to lose myself in pleasure while we travel, but only if you will allow me.”
“I think you might be pushing your luck on that one," Bobbie said, proud of her resolve.
“But, it would help with the travel, my female—”
“Bobbie,” she frowned, correcting him.
“Bobbie, let me lose myself in your body so I will not get confused as we travel faster than light..." Roc’s hand moved down her side, slipping under her dress and pulling it up at the hem. Bobbie shivered as the cool air touched her skin.
“Jeez, you are determined, aren’t you?”
"I will bring you such pleasure, Bobbie, let me be your master."
"No one is my master, I'm my own master, Roc," she stumbled over the name, still unsure about what exactly he was. Were they like bees? There were four Rocs?
“You can be my master as well, Bobbie.” Roc moved his hand to slide it through the silky material of her dress, pulling the top aside and revealing her bare breast. He rolled her nipple between his knuckles and she moaned as the sparks erupted over her skin.
“There is too much cloth between us.” Roc ripped the material open and it fell away, leaving Bobbie completely nude in front of the large man.
“This was my only clothes!” Bobbie said in protest. “And don’t you have to pilot this ship or something?”
"I shall get you many dresses. I shall shower you in the most beautiful styles of my people. You shall have servants to dress you. And we are on automatic, do not worry about the ship.” He looked at her naked body hungrily.
Bobbie shivered from his look alone. She imagined what it meant to be devoured by this man. He was so intense, so driven, and there were four of him. The thought alone had her traitorous body humming with desire. She shifted as the vibrations of the ship and her wild thoughts had her body coming alive. Moisture pooled between her legs and she saw the red of her blush spread across her chest, her nipples hard and erect, straining toward this alien as if begging to be touched.
"I can smell your arousal. I don't know why you still resist me."
"You can't just take me without my permission. I want to go home, Roc,” she whined.
"Your own people sold you to me. Why would you want to stay there? What is there that you want to return to? I can show you the universe, pr’ialla.” Roc bent his big body over Bobbie’s and kissed her exposed shoulder, running his tongue along her creamy skin. Bobbie’s brain shorted out for a moment under his lips, but she managed to move back even further, focusing on his words and not the feel of his actions.
"It was a mock auction, for a date only, not for actual ownership of me!" She exclaimed, building up enough resistance to step a
way from him. She crossed her arms over her chest to cover her breasts. Both Rocs turned to face her, their eyes trailing up and down her body. She didn’t care, she went on to protest with her voice, even though her body wanted to give in. She knew she was only arguing because she didn’t want to give in too easily. She didn’t want to look like she was weak.
"I know you're some kind of fucked up alien or something, but we don't sell people! You didn't buy me, you bought a date with me! Why can't you get it through your thick, dumb head?"
Both Rocs cocked their heads, Bobbie had seen it twice before, she knew it meant he was confused and trying to figure something out. Sure enough, his words affirmed his feelings.
"You are trying to confuse me," he said softly.
"Even if I was, do you regularly purchase women? Hold them in your bed? Is this what your people are like, because then I don't know if you are a very nice people."
“No, how I came to find you was highly irregular. The sale of humanoids is illegal on my planet, especially females. I assumed your people as primitive in that region, I had scanned through the library systems on your Earth, and had not realized that I could easily come across your slavery rings. But when I found you and sensed our matched sparks, I knew I could not let another human purchase you.”
“It wasn’t what you think, I wasn’t being sold,” Bobbie said.
“I will not force you to do anything, Bobbie,” Roc said. “We have a charge between us, can you not feel it? Even now I feel it call to me, but I will not make you do anything you do not want to do.” He took another step closer to her.
"I don't know what feeling you are talking about," she lied.
"You deny the truth." He leaned down and kissed her, capturing her mouth with expert precision. She sighed against his lips and pressed her chest against his, reveling in the feel of her skin against his. This was unreal. She stood on the bridge of a spaceship, butt naked and making out with the hottest male, alien or not, she had ever been with. He was also a damn good kisser. He put his all into it, even if he had three other parts running around like wayward bees. She felt everything he was feeling, every bit of hunger as he nipped at her lips, as his tongue slid into her mouth and tangled with hers. He was hungry for her. It vibrated around them, but he focused everything on that kiss.
