He did not hesitate to slide his cock between my nether lips and thrust it home, filling me suddenly and completely. I cried out as he gripped my hips, startled by the intensity of his movements. I thought of Lilith, the mythical first woman on Earth, and how she had fled the garden when Adam would not let her assert any of her own control. She had left for less than this, and she had had red hair like mine.
Christian pounded into me, stretching me, filling me, until he finally pulled out and tugged himself to completion. I felt his hot emissions hit my skin and drip down over the curve of my ass before he collapsed beside me, exhausted.
He was panting, one arm slung over his eyes, as I shifted on the bed beside him. “Go clean yourself up,” he breathed, not bothering to look at me. So I crept off the bed and into the bathroom, immediately turning on the shower when I got there. I knew if I took my time, he’d be asleep by the time I returned. And perhaps that was for the best. I didn’t seem to have any words for him tonight anyway, least of all a yes.
***
Squeaky-clean and not the least bit sleepy, I crept past a snoring Christian to snatch my blue-and-white striped pajamas from the dresser. I tugged them on and headed for the doorway, buttoning the long-sleeved sleep shirt as I slipped out of the bedroom.
And there he was, in the kitchen: Danovan tel’Darian, beautiful Galatean warrior, making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
“Dr. Cross,” he said, startled to see me standing there. I smiled what I hoped was a warm smile and padded across the cold tile to the refrigerator. “Please,” I said, absently scanning the contents therein, “call me Ara.”
“Ara,” he murmured, turning the word over in his mouth. “I’m surprised to find you still awake.”
“It isn’t late,” I said.
“No, but… er. No.”
I blinked owlishly until I realized what he’d meant: the rather athletic lovemaking. He must have heard us. I felt my face color in a deep red blush. “I was hungry,” I muttered.
“Here,” he said, placing the finishing touches on his sandwich and cutting it diagonally before sliding the plate down the countertop toward me. “Have this.”
“No, you made that for yourself,” I said, smiling.
“Please. It’s the best peanut butter in the universe. I know, I’ve checked all of them.”
“All of them?”
“All of them. Jif Natural Creamy. With Original Jif being a close second.” I beamed broadly up at him before taking the proffered sandwich and biting into it. It tasted like childhood.
“Mm,” I hummed, my mouth sticky with the copious amounts of peanut butter. “You’re right. This is the best.”
“I wouldn’t lie.” He took my hand then, turning it over to examine the ring that I’d forgotten was there. It glimmered prettily in the kitchen’s overhead light.
“I see congratulations are in order.”
I wrenched my hand from his and turned to face the counter, absently running my fingertips around the edge of the plain china plate. “Do you”—I cleared my throat—“I mean… your people. Do you have a similar tradition? Exchanging rings when you make someone a promise?”
Danovan stood beside me and I realized completely how much larger he was than me. Standing at my full height, I could lean my head now against his elbow. I didn’t turn to look at him, but I heard him chuckle quietly as he helped himself to half of the abandoned sandwich.
“Ah, no,” he said around bites of peanut butter. “But I’ve seen the movies. I know how it goes.”
“How does it go in the movies?”
“A girl gets a ring from the wrong guy in the first act,” he said, “but the right guy, when he asks? It’s always a spur-of-the-moment thing. That guy never comes prepared.”
I gave a slow nod of my head, picking absently at the crush of the sandwich. “You think Christian is the wrong guy?”
“Not at all,” he said, finishing off his half of the sandwich and wiping at his mouth with the back of his hand. “You guys seem great together.”
“We do?”
“Sure. A real team. A real… what’s the phrase?”
“Power couple?”
“Yeah.”
I nodded again, feeling ill at ease. I didn’t know what to do with myself, and didn’t have any of my own real space to do it in. “Well,” I said lamely, brushing past the Galatean to head back to the bedroom. Maybe if I just lay down, I’d somehow, miraculously, fall asleep.
“You were really wonderful tonight, Ara,” Danovan said, catching me just before I reached the door. I turned around to face him, and found him gazing after me, his head canted gently to one side. “That’s all anyone is going to remember. How brilliantly you spoke, how inspiring your message was, and how beautiful you looked.”
“Thanks, Danovan,” I said. “Good night.”
The bedroom was musky with the smell of sex, and it wasn’t like I could just open a window. But I climbed into bed all the same, grateful that the island-sized mattress meant I could toss and turn as I pleased without worrying too much about disturbing the slumbering Christian beside me. I closed my eyes and tried to will myself to sleep, coaxing my resistant mind with the reminder that tomorrow the real work could finally begin.
Chapter 5:
Danovan tel’Darian
The days on Galatea were forty-four minutes longer than the days on Earth, so it was taking me a little bit of time to adjust to an Earth-based schedule. Though why a ship orbiting Galatea would be on Earth time was beyond me. Nevertheless, rising in the morning was always a bit of a challenge, as it interrupted my natural rhythm. That, and the cot with which I had been outfitted had been built for someone considerably smaller than myself, a grave oversight on the part of either the designers of the ship or my boss, I’m not entirely sure which. So I was stiff and cranky when I pushed out of the fifteen-by-fifteen cell that served as my bedroom, a room so plain it doesn’t even warrant description.
I spared myself a glance in the bathroom mirror, only to ensure that the dark circles under my eyes weren’t making me look sick, and to straighten the collar of my uniform. It came up high around my neck, a small silver-plated GenOriens logo clasped to the side of it. It was strange to be among all these humans. When I was in training, there were several dozen other Galateans. But since I’d arrived on board, the only others I had seen had been at the gala. I would be grateful to begin my stint with Christian at the GenOriens labs, both here and planetside. There would be more of us and I wouldn’t feel so strange.
When I emerged into the main room to take my post at the door, Ara and Cat were already dressed and ready for the day, sipping espresso at the breakfast bar. Ara’s eyes alighted on me and a smile bloomed across her lovely face, framing her teeth with dimples. “Good morning,” she said, and I could already tell that she was in better spirits. “There’s coffee.”
“Good morning,” I replied, hesitating only a moment before I decided to take her up on the offer. Coffee was an acquired taste, one I hadn’t acquired. But what I did enjoy was the jolt of caffeine to my system; choking down the bitter black liquid usually proved to be worth it. And people in movies were always drinking coffee out of plain white mugs. That, and smoking cigarettes. I had never smoked a cigarette.
Cat did me the favor of pouring some for me, and I drank it quickly, abandoning my cup in the sink before returning to my post.
“So anyway,” Cat went on after the interruption of my presence had passed, “I think we should announce it right away. Get all of the major news outlets to cover it, and set up an interview with you and Mr. Ward that’ll broadcast back to Earth and to the Galatean colonies.”
“I don’t know, Cat,” Ara was saying, twisting her engagement ring around her finger.
“Just think of the amazing things it will do for your project. The donors it could bring in, when everyone realizes that Ward is putting the full force of GenOriens behind you.”
> “He is already doing that,” Ara countered.
“Well, yes. But you know what I mean.”
Ara went from twisting the ring around her finger to toying absently with one red curl. She looked for a moment like she might pull it directly out of her head.
“No, Cat,” she said, firmly if quietly. “I’m just not ready for all that.”
“Ready for what?” Christian emerged from the bedroom, looking dapper in slacks, a vest, and shirtsleeves. Ara and Cat were wearing their own uniforms of black slacks and white blouses, a pair of lab coats no doubt waiting for them in their laboratory. I grinned to note Araceli’s pink-and-grey sneakers. At least she wasn’t wearing heels.
“I’m trying to convince her of the wisdom of announcing your engagement early,” Cat explained, handing Christian a cup of coffee.
“Of course we’ll announce,” he confirmed, sipping from his cup. Ara wasn’t looking at him. “We’ll announce at the end of this week, after you’ve gotten your human-Galatean trials going. You’ll give us a… sexy little story about the breeding pairs, and then we’ll say something like, ‘On a personal note…’”
“I don’t want the story to be about me, Christian,” Ara asserted. “I want the story to be about the work.”
“The story won’t be about you, dear, it’ll be about us. It’ll be about the Ward family lineage. It’ll be about the GenOriens contribution to science and discovery, and you’re a part of that.” Christian approached Ara, abandoning his coffee cup on the breakfast bar, and cupped her face in his hands. “You will be the mother of a new species, my love. The world will adore you.”
“Have you told your mother? What does she think about me coming into the family?”
Christian smiled and pressed a kiss to Araceli’s forehead. “Whose idea do you think it was?”
Christian dropped his hands, finished his coffee, and headed toward the door. Ara and Cat cast a series of furtive glances between themselves, and I got the sense that Cat was catching on to the source of Araceli’s hesitation. Cat gave her an almost imperceptible nod before the ladies joined Christian by the door. He held up a lab coat for Ara to slide her arms into, and when she did, she saw her name embroidered above her breast pocket. “Come, ladies,” he said as Cat grabbed her own coat. “It’s time to get to work.”
***
The ship was abuzz with morning commuters, many of whom were headed toward the GenOriens laboratories, just as we were. We all clipped our credentials to the front of our shirts or lab coats, key cards that allowed us to easily traverse through a series of locked, bulletproof glass doors.
GenOriens had spared no expense when constructing the laboratories, a series of sprawling rooms that took up several levels of the Leviathan. But our first stop was Ara’s office.
“Oh my God,” she muttered as we walked into the space. Christian wore a smug little smile on his face as Cat and Ara ran their hands over the furniture. It was decorated in a fairly generic manner: light wood with teal upholstery, a framed watercolor of a flower on one wall, and an LCD screen that, oddly enough, displayed an image of a parking lot. “I can’t believe you did this,” Ara said.
I furrowed my brow, trying to determine what it was she was talking about, and she caught my look of confusion, smiling faintly as she spoke. “This is exactly what my office on Earth looked like,” she explained. “And I mean exactly.”
“Could’ve done with an upgrade,” Cat muttered, only loud enough for me to hear.
“I wanted you to feel at home,” Christian said. Ara turned to him and snaked her arms around his waist, hugging him close.
“Thank you,” she said, her voice muffled against his chest. He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
“You’re welcome.” But then he wrenched her free, with his hands curled around her shoulders. “Come, come,” he said. “Lots more to see.”
We abandoned Ara’s office and headed down a long corridor to the lab. The walls were glass on either side so we could see the comings and goings of the other scientists, though what they were working on I couldn’t begin to guess. No one bothered to explain what the units meant—I was the only one who didn’t already know, and I didn’t count. “After we announce the engagement,” Christian said as we passed through two sliding glass doors, “I’ll be assigning a bodyguard to you as well.”
“Is that really necessary?” Ara asked, glancing over her shoulder at me.
“Absolutely,” Ward said. “Do you have any idea how many attacks on my life I’ve suffered since I took over GenOriens?”
“Thirty-six,” Cat chimed in. We all looked at her. “What?” she went on. “The answer is thirty-six.”
“Right, so: bodyguard,” Christian concluded, then gestured vaguely toward the exit, letting Ara and Cat file out before him with me picking up the rear. “In fact,” he murmured, slowing us to a crawl as we made our way through the labs, “I’m going to head up to my office to see what sort of a PR issue we have on our hands.”
“PR issue?” Ara echoed, blinking.
“From last night’s event. I want to know if anyone got film of that cretin spitting in your face.” He brushed a kiss over Ara’s cheek. “And I want Danovan to stay with you today, while I suss it out.”
“Christian, really,” Ara protested, “I’m fine.”
“Sir,” I interjected, “my job is to stay with you. Should anything happen—”
“Your job, tel’Darian, is to do what you’re told,” Christian asserted, pointing a finger up at me.
“As you say.” Tiny man gives tiny commands, and all I can do is nod my assent.
“Besides,” he continued, shoving his hands into the pockets of his slacks, “we’re on my ground, now. I’ll be fine.” He turned to Ara and lifted a finger to tuck an errant curl behind her ear. “Your job today is to acquaint yourself with your team, your space, and your subjects. Our first trials are set to begin tomorrow morning at oh eight hundred, but if you feel ready to start this afternoon, then by all means. You’re the boss down here.”
Ara bobbed her head in a nod, visibly relaxing when Christian had disappeared down the hall. “Gather my staff,” she said to Cat. “We begin today.”
In a matter of minutes, the central laboratory was crowded to the gills with NovaGenus scientists, all muttering amongst themselves until Araceli climbed up on one of the silver lab tables, grinning madly as she surveyed her team.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” she began, the scientists quieting as they turned their eyes to their leader, “colleagues, and friends. Welcome. You represent the best and brightest minds in your field, and I’m so proud to have the honor of working with all of you. In fact, I can’t wait to get started—so I won’t.” There was a smattering of laughter from the crowd. “We will begin the NovaGenus trials today.”
The scientists began to applaud, their enthusiasm for the project washing over me like waves. I couldn’t help but smile as I looked out at all of their eager faces, human and Galatean alike.
“You have already been assigned your teams,” Ara continued, shouting over the dying applause, “and those team assignments have been e-mailed to all of you. The subjects have been given a number, and have been randomly paired with a member of their opposite species and sex. We’ll start by—”
The change was immediate and absolute. One moment, we were standing in a well-lit lab, and the next, everything—people, furniture, equipment—had been tossed askance and all was cast in red emergency lighting. Sirens blared from loud speakers as the ship’s crisis generator kicked on and struggled to maintain life support. As loud as I knew the siren was, I heard it as though it were muffled, like I had wads of cotton in my ears. That’s how I knew we’d been close to the explosion, close enough for my ears to be ringing from the force of it.
I pulled myself to standing along with most of the scientists. Most—some lay lifeless, shards of supposedly bulletproof glass stuck through the
ir necks, stomachs, eyes. I glanced to my left and hoisted Cat to her feet, giving her a little shake and forcing her to focus. “Get to an escape pod,” I shouted, repeating myself over and over until I saw her bob her head in understanding. Then I tried to find Araceli.
Everything was total chaos in low red lighting. People were swarming around me, fleeing, stampeding, and I was a fish trying to swim upstream. But then I saw her, lying prone on the lab floor, her eyes closed to the pandemonium that surrounded her. I darted forward and pressed my fingers to the soft skin of her neck, panicked that I would find her still and lifeless. I breathed a sigh of relief when I felt the flutter of her pulse beneath my fingertips, and bent forward to scoop her into my arms.
As my hearing cleared, I started to be able to discern a voice coming over the speakers throughout the entire ship: Ladies and gentlemen. This is not a drill. Please proceed to your assigned escape pods.
The ship was full of scientists, military, dignitaries, and the wealthiest elites. My wager was that half of them, maybe, would know where to find their assigned escape pods. But chances were that the half that did would be in a screaming match with the half that didn’t, the half that went straight to the nearest pod instead of the assigned pod.
But I knew where my pod was, and furthermore, I knew how to do a manual launch. The pods were set to launch all at once, only when it became clear that the Leviathan’s atmosphere could not be stabilized. I, however, wasn’t willing to wait that long.
Alien Survivor: (Stranded on Galatea) An Alien SciFi Romance Page 4
