“Of course. Right away. Off I go.” A fake cheerful attitude got me through Varon’s rougher patches. I laughed to imagine myself, a hulking ex-military Jorkan, actually following Varon’s orders. As if I couldn’t snap his arm in two for looking at me askance. I had my reasons for following Varon, and why not smile while doing it?
I went looking for the stout woman. She had walked down the hall and to the left. As I followed, I found signs that lead to the “Administrative Office”. Bingo. I made myself unassuming and knocked while opening the door. I had a way of making people feel comfortable, and I found that was the best way to get the information I needed. The stout woman was at a desk in front of an impossibly antique-looking computer. I guess for her it felt like home? I wondered what Earth was like.
“Excuse me?”
“Yes, excuse me, I’m looking for the human woman.” I paused, hoping that would be enough. “Varon’s grown worried about her.”
The woman harrumphed. “She’s in her room. Down the hall, then the other hall, third door on the right.”
“Thank you…” I paused again, hanging for a name. She didn’t offer one. “Thank you.”
I followed the woman’s directions until I reached the appropriate door. I rapped loudly on the door, knocking three times.
No answer. I knocked again, just to be sure. Still no answer. I wondered if I had the right door, as if suddenly my direction-following skills had evaporated.
No, this had to be it. I turned the knob and it opened easily.
“Hello, this is Razar,” I announced, not really knowing what to say. I didn’t want to scare the poor woman. If she was even here. “Hello?”
I stepped into the room and right away, I was looking into a bathroom, with steam everywhere. Before I realized where I was looking, I saw her shining hair overflowing out of a tub. Above the curly red hair, her face was surrounded by steam. It was the most beautiful face I had ever seen, even upside down. There was an ethereal look to her, like a delicate fairy from a bedtime story. Her eyes were closed, her mouth softly smiling, in apparent bliss at being in such a large tub. I looked away sharply, but not before I made out the curve of her breasts, her naked legs above the water. It was barely a second, but I could tell I was over the moon.
How could one person be so beautiful?
“I’m sorry, I just walked in,” I whispered, but she seemed not to be noticing me.
Should I stay? Should I go?
I hadn’t the faintest idea what to do.
Alicia
As I was lounging in the bath, I had the faint feeling that someone else was there with me. It was probably pent up anxiety, but I opened my eyes anyway, just to check. There before me, upside down and dressed in black fatigues, was the largest, scaliest man I had ever seen. I could not process what I was seeing. Faintly sparkling red scales. Muscled legs. A huge red tail. Let me say that again…a huge red tail! Part of it was covered in a skintight black cloth, but part of it was free to swing back and forth. His face was directed at the floor, but I could see a handsome jaw and strong nose.
God, what was I saying? There’s a strange man in my bathroom, so why in the world was I wondering about his handsome jaw? A strangled shriek escaped my throat and I pulled myself up, splashing wildly. At least this strange man had the decency to look away. I shrunk underneath the water’s surface, pulling my knees close to cover my breasts. I hoped he liked knees because that’s all he’d get to see.
“Who are you and what are you doing in here?!” I yelled.
“Sorry,” he said. Finally, he had the presence of mind to turn his back toward me. “I didn’t mean to, uh, interrupt. I’ll explain once you’re dressed.”
In the heat of the tub, I could feel my face flushing and filling with blood. No matter that this was Pluto, and that I was kidnapped and here against my will, we both clearly had a sense of naked and clothed. But I was naked and he was clothed. And so I was terribly, incredibly embarrassed. Not knowing what else to do or say, having very little control over myself, I let out a sigh.
“This is crazy. All of this.”
“No, no,” his voice came out clear. “I’m the one who shouldn’t have come in here like this. This is my fault. I’ll just…” his voice trailed off. He seemed frozen in his place, unable to move for fear of turning his head in my general direction.
Well, this was going nowhere fast. The only way out was through. Grimacing, I picked my naked self out of the tub and dripped my way over to the luxurious towels. The towels, thankfully, were enormous.
I wrapped one around my body and it covered me down to my calves in soft, terry fabric. I knotted it above my chest. I still felt dangerously exposed. I grabbed a hand towel and dried off my hair. I looked at the hand towel and decided to drape the thing over my bare shoulders. I didn’t care that I was on Pluto, I still had a sense of modesty. I probably looked silly, but so did this alien man.
I wondered who he might be.
I cleared my throat. I’d used the time dressing to consider his nonthreatening and slightly sheepish demeanor, as well as who would be barging into my privacy and for what reason. “You can turn around now.”
“I—what…” he stammered, and turned.
I almost gasped. He looked the way I imagined movie stars looked, a breathless sort of handsomeness. Despite, or perhaps even because of, the tiny red scales dotting his face. Their shimmer accented the sharp lines of his nose, his chiseled jaw, his cheeks. It was really something. Maybe this was the “future mate” character everyone had been going on about.
I held out my hand. “I’m Alicia. I’ve been kidnapped by people who told me they are intergalactic agents, and I have no idea who or what you are.” I paused. “Now, given that you’re real and not something I’m hallucinating, I guess the story those agents told me isn’t bullshit, huh?”
“I guess not. My name is Razar and I am a Jorkan.” He eyed my hand and made no move to grasp it. I let it down with a sigh. Maybe these Jorkan had no idea what a handshake was?
“What are you doing here?” I asked. “Are you my ‘future mate’?” A whisper of hopefulness was covered by stark honesty. He seemed thoughtful, decent, and handsome, a combination that was hard to find anywhere. He did have a red tail and about two feet of extra height on him, though.
At my question, he recoiled almost imperceptibly and straightened back up.
“No, that’s not me,” he said. “I was sent here to gather you by Varon. He’s the one they’ve genetically matched you with. I’m just a guard, really. Muscle.”
He certainly was. All muscle.
“You’ve come to gather me?”
“My boss, Varon, he’s waiting for you. He grew,” he paused, clearly searching for a word that wouldn’t make his boss look bad, “worried.”
I decided to give this Razar and this Varon the benefit of the doubt. I might have been naked, but Razar wasn’t making me feel looked at or cornered, the way guys at the bar had had a habit of doing.
I felt comfortable.
“Well, we must not keep him waiting, huh?” I joked. The words felt dry coming out of my mouth. I desperately wanted to feel cool and nonchalant. That’s what the bath was supposed to do, but I felt my anxiety and my fury bubbling up. How would that help? How would being angry help? I repeated to myself until I almost believed it.
“I’m going to get dressed, so if you could just…wait outside?”
Nodding, he left me alone again. I was trembling. I opened the closet and there were just a few options there, all of them far too revealing. They looked like they would fit, but I would be falling out of them! No, not for me. I picked up my old bar clothes and gave them a smell. Absolutely not. They were grimy from a long day and three shifts of work. I remembered how bone tired I usually was and counted as one of my blessings that at least now I felt clean and refreshed.
I looked back at the closet. There was a black dress that I could imagine being my style if I was ever at something so fancy a
s to require it. It was high-necked, sleeveless, and shimmery. I had to unzip it to pull it on. There was a string to help me zip it up, how helpful. The end of the dress fell gracefully over my thighs and unceremoniously stopped. I wish it were longer, but the other two showed far more cleavage than I wanted to be showing. And the shoes… there was nothing I’d have had in my own closet. Teetering high heels and strappy sandals. I picked the least terrifying pair and slipped them on.
“I’m coming out,” I called to Razar, opening the door, and there he still was. He wasn’t a mere figment of my imagination, but the real deal. I blurted out, “Are all of you Jorkan so tall?”
“We’re all different heights, but most of us are taller than you, yes,” he answered matter-of-factly. “Come, I’ll take you to Varon.”
He led me through the winding hallways to a room with a very tall doorway. Maybe it was regular sized and I was the short one. Razar stood at the entrance and motioned for me to walk through before him.
I walked into a room full of plush pillows and a red couch.
On that red couch lounged a purple Jorkan, slightly smaller but no less intimidating than Razar. My heart sank. I could not say exactly why, but he gave me a sinking feeling, similar to the way leering men would come to the bar just to stare at me. He wasn’t leering, or doing anything unseemly, he was just lounging and sipping a drink. The way he took up space, like he owned all the space around him, set me on edge. I felt he possessed none of Razar’s gentle decency. I hoped that my premonition was just that, a feeling.
“This is Varon,” Razar said. “Varon, this is Alicia.”
Razar had appeared at my side while I was in a daze, still thinking about the way Varon made me feel uneasy. I suddenly felt better, just knowing he was there. It was a strange feeling, but comforting at the same time. I took a deep breath, then tried to push my disappointment away. The least I could do was be friendly. I strode up to Varon and plopped myself next to him on the couch.
“Alicia Harper,” I said. “Now, will you offer me a drink?”
Razar
I admired this human woman’s composure. Actually, there was a lot about her that I admired, if I was being honest. Still, the fact that she strode right up to this man who she had never seen before and asked for a drink was something to marvel at. Starting off with a drink also meant that she was probably going to be exactly to his taste.
My heart sank, though I didn’t have any stake in this game. However beautiful she was, it was my job to deliver her to Varon, end of story.
“Razar?”
I snapped out of my reverie and realized that I had been staring into space. Or, more truthfully, staring directly at Alicia.
“Do you feel like fucking off?” Varon was attempting a joking tone, but even Alicia flinched at the razors at the bottom of his voice.
“Of course, sir.”
More than relieved for the release from what was, undoubtedly, an awkward situation with me hanging around, I couldn’t help feeling a pang at leaving her behind with him. Catching a fleeting glimpse of her eyes as I turned to go, I flattered myself that she felt something similar.
“Holy hell.” It was a phrase I had picked up from the humans, and it felt oddly appropriate as I leaned back against the wall upon leaving the chamber. Why was my chest so tight? Why were my palms so damp? What was going on with me?
But I already knew—I’d just seen a human woman naked for the first time, and I couldn’t get it out of my head. Were they all like that? I’d never seen skin so smooth, just begging to be touched. And all I wanted to do was touch it. All of it.
Shaking my head, I muttered, “Get yourself together, Razar.” I was going to have to if I hoped to maintain this security detail under Varon. Because I was going to be seeing a lot of this woman. Perhaps not as much of her as I would have liked, but more than enough to drive me crazy.
Crazy was exactly the word for this. I was just dazzled by a new, unique sight. The novelty of her pale skin, the curve of her breasts, the long, fine lines of her legs. All of that was just new to me, and I would get over it in short order.
Hopefully.
There was a job to be done, and I was going to have to screw my head on straight and do it. She was matched to Varon. While I might find the little prick insufferable, it was a prestigious job and paid well enough—though if it wasn’t for the debt I owed Varon’s father, I would have been out a long time ago. And now, if it put me in proximity to Alicia, that was going to be a bonus.
There was that thought again!
I may have just begged off a drink, but found myself sorely needing one. My place was beside the door, but surely I could steal off for a second to find something to steady my nerves. It seemed like there was booze all over this place. Probably best for smoothing the transition these human women had to endure.
Still, my mind kept finding its way back to the devastatingly beautiful woman I had first glimpsed soaking in the tub. The injustice of her being bought like a pastry swelled up through me, and I very nearly turned to storm back and kick in the door. I had to get a grip on myself—she had nothing to do with me.
This was a job. I had to trust that the Protocols were being followed to the letter, regardless of how I felt about this. Any other thought would put me in a precarious position over feelings that had no place in my line of work.
What were those feelings even, really? Straightening up, I promised myself that the next time I saw Alicia Harper, she would be plainer and less fascinating than I had first imagined. Meeting anyone naked for the first time was bound to cloud one’s judgment.
Evening my breath and squaring my steps, I forced my mind back to my post outside Varon’s door. Some secret part of me dreaded the noises I might hear when I arrived at my designated position.
Alicia
“What a miserable little room,” Varon said.
He stood at the center of the room we had been given, a luxurious suite with a gigantic bed and two matching bathrooms on opposite sides. The large viewports offered an expansive view of the darkness outside, Pluto drifting right underneath us like a piece of floating ice, and the lights mounted overhead bathed the room with a warm yellow glow. Everything seemed to be high-end and upscale, but Varon wasn’t impressed. At all.
“I must apologize to you,” he said, placing one hand over his heart as if he were making a public apology. “The officials in charge of this station clearly have no idea on how to treat someone like you. I can assure you that, if we were aboard my ship right now, our room would put this place to shame.”
“This seems fine,” I told him. He was trying to be nice, but there was something extremely narcissistic about the way he spoke. He couldn’t stop bitching about the treatment we were being given, and he was always assuring me that his ship and staff were a thousand times better than anything we were experiencing here. I kept the expression of distaste off my face, using the skills I’d developed as a bartender, and yanked my mind away from Razar for the umpteenth time.
Then again, what did I know about life in space? Just hours ago, I hadn’t even known that aliens even existed, and now I was stuck inside a bedroom with one of them. Maybe Varon had the right of it, and everything was supposed to be extra luxurious and wasteful outside of Earth.
Or maybe Varon was just an asshole.
“Care for a drink?” he asked, pointing at the drink cart in front of the bed.
“Yes, please,” I replied, needing another healthy dose of whisky so I could endure his presence. Varon, though, didn’t move. He just stood beside the cart, smiling like an idiot. He was probably expecting one of his servants to appear out of thin air and pour us a drink but, of course, none of that happened. In the end, I served myself a double whisky and knocked it back without a moment’s hesitation.
Varon watched me with his beady eyes, and I felt a cold shiver run up my spine, my previous unease returning. Our first meeting had been awkward and uncomfortable, and it didn’t seem like things we
re going to improve now that we were stuck inside a bedroom.
Clearing my throat, I poured myself two more fingers of whiskey, then poured some for him. Even though I didn’t exactly like him, I was trying to be polite. If there was no escaping this, and if I really had to spend the next thirty days around someone like Varon, then it was better to play nice, collect my money, and refuse to sign. At least that was what the station’s official had shown us with his little presentation: apparently, there was a thirty-day trial for this supposed relationship. At the end of the trial period, we could enter an official agreement to become partners, or we could walk away from it all with enough cash to start over. It gave me some hope. All I had to do was survive the month.
Smiling, I pushed the glass into his hand, and backed away from him, eager to put some distance between the two of us.
“This is horrible.” Frowning, he smelled his drink and set it aside. “I don’t know what kind of operation they’re running here, but these drinks...unacceptable, even for a peasant.” He stared at the selection of drinks on the cart, then sighed. When he turned his attention to me, his frown disappeared and was quickly replaced by a wide smile. “Now, I’m not going to let that ruin my night. Better days will come.”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” I muttered, having no idea how to interact with him. He reminded me of the rich, self-absorbed assholes that, on Earth, had taken over the news cycles. The only difference here was that this particular asshole had horns, a tail, and scales. “Huh, maybe we should get some sleep. We’re departing early in the morning, right?”
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” he said, waving my concerns away. “We’ll be taking my ship to Tarkun IV, so it’ll be a fast trip. Besides, the night is still young...and I’d like nothing more than to get to know you, Alicia Harper.”
Razar Page 3