by Calista Skye
“You actually liked it?” she asks with disbelief.
I can’t keep a straight face anymore. “I hated it. But I understand why it is enjoyable. I think the enjoyment comes from knowing that we never have to do that again.”
“Uh-huh.” She sits on the steps down from the large machine. “God. It was like being inside a washing machine. One that runs backwards and to the sides while it slowly breaks into pieces, hanging fifty feet up in the air. I’ve never been so shaken around.”
“Brax’tan must be made from stronger stuff than us.”
“Uh, no. I lied. He hates it, too. Sorry. Only Delyah likes it.”
“Ah. These are common machines on your planet?”
“Yeah. Well, not just like this. This thing is different from the ones I’ve tried before. I haven’t tried that many, to be honest. And now I remember that I mostly hated those, too. But this one is much more violent.”
I take Ashlynn’s little hand and walk to the column that will take us up. I don’t think this is the right place for us right now.
Back on the waterfall level, the sun has just dipped below the horizon and the air is balmy. But I’m not satisfied.
We go all the way up to the upper level, the one where we started. Here the night is darker, and we know it’s safe.
I lead Ashlynn over to a squat tree that bears fruit with a golden hue. “Lie down here.”
She does, curling up and closing her eyes. “Thank you for everything you do for me,” she says drowsily.
I lie down behind her with my sword within easy reach. I adjust her so her head is on my arm and the other arm is around her.
In the distance, the robot sits down on the ground, its face turned to the side so we won’t think that it’s staring at us.
Ashlynn’s heartbeat shoots softly through me, her scent is in my nose, and her warmth heats up my skin.
A strange thought goes through my mind: what if all my nights could be like this?
What if she stays here? What if she joins me in my new tribe?
Or, what if she stays with her old tribe and invites me to stay with her?
That idea appeals so much to me I forget to breathe so as not to scare it away.
She wants to leave. That’s all she wants. That’s why she’s here.
It is. But what was it Delyah said? ’So that we will have the option to leave.’
I think that’s a hopeful statement.
13
- Ashlynn -
“Sorry I didn’t warn you,” the robot says with Delyah’s voice. “But I wanted you to feel the full effect of the first impression. It is insanely weird, right?”
“Insanely is the word,” I agree and munch on the fruit I’ve picked from the tree. “I legit thought I was losing my mind. I had to run out and puke.”
“Ouch,” Delyah sympathizes. “I took my eyes off it just in time. I stomped out and vowed to never go in there again. But then, after a couple of hours, I wanted to see it again. There’s just something about it that makes it both abhorrent and magnetic. Like passing an accident on the freeway. You can’t help but look.”
“Yeah! That was the feeling I got, too. And I kind of think I might make some sense of it. I mean, don’t hold me to it. But thinking back to what I saw, I feel like it’s not a totally impossible puzzle. I’ll keep the tachyon ideas in the back of my mind. I think this is what it might look like.”
“Just don’t spend too much time staring at it. Or even in that room. I don’t think I had any ill effects from it, but you never know what kind of radiation it emits.”
I take another bite of the sweet fruit and glance over at Juri’ex, who’s sitting right in front of me, inspecting his sword. The morning sun illuminates the garden and creates the illusion that this might be somewhere on Earth. I’m fully rested and pretty eager to get back down and check out the thing again.
“What shall we call it? Just the Weirdness?”
“Sure,” Delyah says. “That’s very appropriate. The Weirdness. Everything else okay down there?”
“Yep. We didn’t go any deeper in the levels. Maybe later today. I like the waterfall level. Did you ever have a better bath than there? Didn’t check out the desert level too much, though. And the cityscape is just… tragic.”
“Yeah. It’s like they just gave up on looking to the future and decided to exist only in the past. I guess that’s what dragons can do to a civilization. We just have to keep them away from Earth.”
Her words send a small barb to my conscience. I lost my secret possession. It really should be somewhere by the pool. “Delyah, you said the floor is self-cleaning. Do you think the spaceship can clean up other things, too? Like, litter?”
“Litter?”
“Like small objects. Not trash. It’s just, I lost something and I can’t find it again.”
“Never seen that happen. I once left my old sandals by the waterfall pool for a week or so. They were there when I came back, just as I had left them. And the twig arrows seem to never move at all. I’ve learned to always pick up bones and stuff from the meat I sometimes eat, because it just stays wherever you drop it. There are no animals that would take it, like in the jungle or on Earth. On the other hand, old fruits and pits seem to vanish by themselves. How big is the thing you lost?”
“About the size of a cell phone. It’s not important. I’m sure I’ll find it in the last place I look.”
Delyah laughs. “Ain’t that always the way.”
I suck the last of the juice off the fruit pit, then toss it into a nearby bush. “Any news from the starship captain?”
“Is that supposed to be me? Not really news, I guess. Having some trouble with some of the equipment here. Just glitches, I’m sure. Hey, it’s an old spaceship. Probably out of warranty, too.”
“Yeah, it’ll be hard to take it back to the shop. I bet you don’t even have the original receipt. Anything serious?”
“Doesn’t look like it. It’s just that one of the consoles has gone dead. I think it has to do with the various levels and doors and such. Could be because you guys are here. Or probably not. This ship is so freaking alien. I swear it has a mind of its own.”
- - -
There is still eternal twilight on the amusement level.
“We should probably not spend too much time here,” Juri’ex says. “The darkness could confuse our night cycles.”
I squeeze his hand. “That’s absolutely true. And we don’t even like the rides. How about we check the next level down later? We’ll be the first ones to explore it.”
He shrugs. “I have my sword.”
“I think you have two. One there.” I point to the weapon on his blade, then cup his bulge outside the pants. “And one here that’s almost as large.”
“Ah,” he smirks, “but that one is not for fighting.”
“You sure? One day you might kill me with pleasure.”
He scratches his chin. “That’s a strangely attractive idea, but at the same time completely abhorrent.”
“Because you don’t want to kill me, after all?”
“Because I’m trying to become less eager to please,” he counters with a glint in his eye the size of the moon Yrf.
I slide my hand up his bare chest, so bulging with muscle I don’t know how I was able to keep my hands off him the first day. “Is it really the worst insult you can imagine? Being called eager to please?”
He laughs. “Being willing to do nice things for others would seem to be a fine quality, as long as the eagerness isn’t so great it becomes a compulsion. No, I didn’t mind it that much.”
I trace one stripe with my fingertip. “Just so you know, I never found you that eager to please. I was just teasing. But I like it when you please my… you know. Maybe you can do that more today?”
He cocks his head to the side. “Please your friends?”
“No. Please my… um…”
“Please your mother?”
“No! Damn it. Please me,
you know, there.”
“In the village?”
“Argh. No. Please my…”
“Your…?”
To my surprise, my cheeks go red. “You know. My slit.”
“Oh.” He smirks again. “That’s what I thought. But I wanted you to say it. And you did. You can be eager to please, too.”
I smile up at him. “We’re so much alike!”
He laughs, a deep and free laugh that makes me want to stay right by him and never leave. He bends down and kisses me. “Indeed, we are. In the best ways.”
“Okay,” I say, breathless from the kiss. ”I’ll go in there and take a new look at the Weirdness. Then we go down to the next level.”
“I’ll be right behind you. Don’t stay in there a single heartbeat longer than necessary.”
“I won’t. It’s probably better if you don’t look at it at all. Just so one of us is always fully alert.”
“I wasn’t going to. While I like aliens more than I ever thought I would, that object is too strange, even for me. But I think you can handle it perfectly well.”
- - -
This time it doesn’t overwhelm me. I still can’t make heads or tails of it, but I didn’t expect to. I recognize this sensation – it won’t be rational thought that solves it, but some bright idea from another part of my mind. If it ever happens.
The object comes and goes at the same time. It moves and stays still. It changes, but stays the same. It is gigantic, but tiny. It grows and shrinks simultaneously. It is blindingly bright and as dark as deepest space. It consumes energy and releases it.
The eyes can’t grasp it, and the mind can’t process what little the eyes can hold on to.
Nausea is tugging at the corner of my consciousness, and I recognize it as a kind of motion sickness.
I look away from the Weirdness and focus on the wall beside me.
No.
I turn around. “Juri’ex?”
“Ashlynn?” There’s worry on his face.
“Could you please stand here, in front of me, with your back to it? Like that, yes. I just want to look at you.”
I focus on his face. The proportions aren’t perfect, as seen with my Earthling eyes. But there’s beauty there. Strength and vitality and health. His eyes glow with the most vivid turquoise I could ever imagine.
I lean a little to the side and look at the Weirdness behind him. Just a piece of it, not the whole thing.
Then I look back at Juri’ex. He brings me back to the now, creates a perfectly real contrast to the strange thing behind him. And now I see the beauty. The Weirdness unlocks it, allows me to see beyond the conventions of my own species. He is gorgeous!
I glance at the Weirdness again. It doesn’t repulse me as much anymore. The nausea dies down.
Back at Juri’ex. He has a little smile on his face, as if he knows perfectly well what’s going on. And maybe he does. He must know that he makes me weak at the knees, just by being himself. He gives me confidence. This must seem ridiculous to him. But he does his part without any complaint.
I alternate between Juri’ex and the Weirdness, between relaxed joy and concentration.
I don’t know if it makes any sense. But it’s the only way I can do this. A little bit at a time.
What is the Weirdness? The tachyon idea. Faster than light. That could be it. Something that moves faster than light could look like this. But not a particle. This is bigger.
I decide that I’m done. “Shall we go?”
Juri’ex just takes my hand and marches me out, fast.
Outside, he looks me up and down. “Are you all right?”
I take a moment to check. “I think so. It helps to have something else to look at, so I can take little breaks.”
“We’ll relax for a little while and then go to the next level down.”
I put my hand on his chest, the way I like. “But how will we relax?”
His bulge comes to life immediately.
“I have some ideas,” he says.
We take the elevator column up to my favorite level, where I can take a nice bath surrounded by autumnal woods.
We both jump into the water and scrub each other’s backs under the waterfall, and then we dry out in the sun beside it.
“Will that strange object help you return to your home?” Juri’ex asks, lazily stroking my thigh.
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I don’t even know what I’m looking for or why. But it does seem to be important, right?”
He nods. “But if it is that important, why is it in the amusement park?”
I hadn’t gotten that far in my own thinking process. “Yeah… why is that?”
“Perhaps the Ex found it enjoyable to look at it.”
“Perhaps. Can’t imagine why.”
“Maybe it wasn’t the looking at it that was enjoyable in itself. Just the knowledge that it was there. Back in my tribe, the shaman had an altar in his cave. We could see it and pray at it anytime we wanted. But we rarely did. We just liked to know that there was a connection to the Ancestors there if we needed it.”
I place my hand on his knee and stroke the scarred skin over hard bone. I guess alien cavemen skin their knees, too. “You think it might be a place of worship?”
“Just a thought.”
“I think the Weirdness is the reason this spaceship can – actually, could – travel in space,” I think out loud. “Delyah suspects something like that, too. But then, why is it on the amusement level? Shouldn’t it be deep in the guts of the ship? It is possible that the Ex worshipped that thing. And frankly, I can see why. It’s so... what’s the word?”
He thinks about it. “Otherworldly?”
“Yes. Otherworldly. Scary and impossible to understand. And at the same time you can’t not look at it.”
Juri’ex smirks. “So, it’s a lot like you.”
“You find me scary?”
“A little, maybe. But I meant the part about not being able to look away.” His eyes wander all over me.
I arch my back to make my chest more prominent. “I see.”
He takes it as an invitation and cups one bare breast in his large warrior hand. “But I think you can also be hard to understand.”
“Hey, I’m doing my best. It’s not my fault your language is so weird.”
He chuckles and gently squeezes the feminine flesh under his hand. “Oh, I have no problem understanding what you say when you speak properly. It’s when you use your own speech that I can’t follow.”
“How about you just shut up and fuck me with that sensational cock of yours?” I say in English while smiling sweetly.
“Just like that,” he sighs. “I don’t know if you’re cursing me or asking me to Mate with you.”
“Which one do you think it was?”
He shifts his attention to the other boob and makes that nipple go hard with a single well-placed flick of the finger. “If you were cursing me, you would probably not be smiling. And it would be somewhat ineffective if I didn’t know you were doing it.”
“Aahhh… I mean, uh-huh, that makes sense. I like the way you think. Well done. Oh yeah, right there.”
“So, it must have been the other thing.”
I grab his rock-hard cock. “I think it must. What will you do about it?”
“You’ll see.” He calmly rolls over and spreads me out on the warm grass, then puts his face right up to mine, piercing my soul again with his stare. “I’m going to Mate with you now.”
Heat pools at my core in expectation. My pussy clenches around nothing, wanting to be filled.
Juri’ex moves down my body, leaving a trail of kisses down my front, still keeping his hands on my boobs and teasing them with his fingers.
I’m pretty ready as it is, but his little kisses in the direction of the main event create a tense anticipation. I remember from last time what a tease he can be.
He kisses my stomach all over, then my hip bones and my lower abdomen. Any moment now...
> My breath goes irregular with expectation, and I wantonly spread my legs. I’m sure my clit must be straining skywards in eagerness to feel Juri’ex’s tongue.
He kisses me lower and lower, and I tense up, because the next one has to be…
No. He just moves away and starts a new trail of soft caresses of his lips from a different point, always moving towards my pussy, but never quite getting there.
And it works. Of course, it works. Every time I think the next one will be right there, liquid heat shoots through my lower body, helped by the delighted tingles from his hands on my chest. I can’t understand how it’s possible for him to concentrate on both things, but somehow he does it perfectly. This has to be what it’s like to have two men at the same time. And he does have two cocks—
“Oooohhh!” It takes me a split second to realize that he has taken me by surprise and not just kissed my pussy, but put his mouth over all of it and plunged his tongue into the hole. It sends a jolt through me, making my whole body twitch.
“Ooooh yeahhhh,” I encourage. His tongue works my pussy slowly, all over. And there has to be something special about it. Because it feels almost as much like a sex toy as his cock does. It twirls and spins and laps and delights, and I can’t keep track of what’s going on. All I know is that I wish it would go on forever.
Just when I think that, Juri’ex places a hard kiss on my clit and almost sends me over the edge right there.
But not quite. And then the tongue is gone, and there’s another, harder presence at my sex.
“Yeah, fuck me,” I plead. “Fuck me now.”
Last time, I was worried if it would fit. Now I know it does, and all the worry has given way to sheer joy. I spread myself further apart, wanting to open myself fully for him.
Like the first time, he looks me in the eyes to check that it’s okay, but I don’t want to talk. He knows the answer, anyway.
He pushes in, not as slowly as yesterday. I guess we both know it will fit now. And he knows better than I do how wet I am.
His cock slides into me and fills the void with warmth and male hardness and determination. It goes all the way into my center and stops there, spreading its heat.
