by C. V. Walter
Table of Contents
Title
Copyright
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Epilogue
Author's Note
About the Author
Other Works
The Alien’s
Accidental
Bride
by
C.V. Walter
The Alien’s Accidental Bride
© C.V. Walter 2021
All Rights Reserved
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is a coincidence.
Acknowledgements
I’d like to thank all the doctors, nurses, rocket scientists, computer programmers and mouthy teenagers who sat with me at all hours at the different conventions I’ve been to over the years to complain about inaccuracies and dream about the “what-if’s”. Thank you.
Chapter 1
The corridor was long and grey and stretched for miles as it curved its way around the space station. It was one of seemingly identical corridors in the storage rings of the Bradbury 12 space station. Kept at low-gravity and minimal life-support, it's walls were the uniform steel grey of the rest of the station, with only graffiti left by maintenance technicians to act as landmarks.
There were supposed to be numbers on the doors to correspond with the ones on the outside that could be seen by docking ships offloading cargo but nobody had gotten around to putting them on. All the controls for the doors and internal climate control were in the main command ring except for the emergency controls that were located inside. The only people who ever really needed to see the door numbers were the maintenance technicians.
Molly looked at the heads up display in her tech suit, watching the beacon on the map to tell her where the repairs she had been sent for actually were. Made of heavy duty, insulating fabric, and a light weight metal frame, it was a combination between a space suit and the power suits used by the docking crews. Powered hydraulics in the frame helped her lift heavy debris and equipment while the tough outer fabric kept it from being punctured by anything she came across.
That was the theory, at least. She'd never felt the urge to test it and always made her way carefully around the areas she was sent to, making a point to keep the electros in the boots on at least enough to keep her attached to the floor. There were more than a few techs who took advantage of the low grav in the outer rings to move quickly and rush to their destinations. They'd learned that, while the suits could stop scratches from damaging the inner lining, hitting a piece of jagged metal at speed could still hurt like a son of a bitch.
The maintenance tech uniform was a jumpsuit that was tight enough to be worn as the insulating onesie inside the tech suit and had an optional hood that could be used to keep her earpiece and microphone in place and put the water tube somewhere convenient. All of that meant, unless she lost comms entirely, she could reach out for help immediately if something went sideways. Losing a tech because of a dropped microphone when the one on the tech suit was damaged was more common than anybody wanted to think about.
Her dedication to arriving to her assignment safely meant Molly often got assigned to the parts that required great attention to detail. Which is why she watched the heads up display on her suit and checked it against the graffiti on the walls. Mistakes on the heads up were rare but they were known to happen. Sometimes from a faulty sensor or offline connection but more often from human error inputting verbal requests for repairs, especially in the outer rings.
She'd just arrived at the wall that was listed as needing repairs when her earpiece chirped with an incoming call. The number on her display showed it as unlisted which was supposed to be impossible on the space station. She waited for the chime to change to the one she expected while she inspected the damage on the wall.
Sure enough, it went from an anonymous chirp to a clip from a classic rock song. She flicked her eyes across the answer button and went back to work.
"Hey, baby, what's up?" she asked, making notes of the micro-fissure that was showing in the wall.
"Hey, mom," the man's voice on the other side said. "You busy?"
"I'm working," she told him. "And you're not supposed to be able to call me here."
"Yeah, well, they need to work on their security for the stations comms. These were stupid easy to hack."
"No, no they're not. You are literally the only person on the planet who has managed to do so." Molly grinned at him, even though she knew he couldn't see her.
"I'm the only person on the planet that you know about. How many other people are getting illicit phone calls while they're at work?"
"Most people use the official channels to get their phone calls," Molly said.
"That's what you think."
"Aiden, did you need something? Because I am working with explosives in low grav right now."
"You're patching a hole that was caused when someone put too much strain on the door because it didn't open fast enough. I watched the tape. He knew he did it, too, and just registered the stress-tear because someone said something."
"Aiden," Molly said, her voice sharp.
"Right, sorry. I did call about something but it's not terribly important. You doing okay up there?"
Molly smiled. "Yeah, baby, I'm doing okay. Miss me?"
"You have no idea," her son said. "Grandmere is being a royal pain and I think Katie is going to try and set me up with another of her friend's daughters."
"Have your dad run interference while you duck out the door," she advised him. "That usually worked for me."
"Yeah, well, dad's dating again and the new girlfriend thinks it would just be so fantastic if I settled down and thought about starting a family." The disgust in Aiden's voice was palpable. "He says 'hi', by the way."
"You're only eighteen," Molly said, appalled.
"Yeah, well, so were you when I was born," Aiden said. "And everybody is just so excited to have grandbabies and great grandbabies and it's my duty to add to the Summers family line and it's not like I wouldn't have help raising them."
"What, do they think you're going to make them yourself? You're an amazing kid, Aiden, but if you've figured out how to reproduce asexually, you really need to write that scientific paper rather than try and raise kids." Molly paused for a moment, then continued, "And I am not any kind of role model when it comes to children. What are they thinking?"
"They're thinking they bullied dad into having kids early so they can do the same thing to me, except they forgot that you're my mom and I'm about as likely to give in to anything they want as you ever were."
"I still got pregnant at eighteen, kiddo. They're persistent and can get mean about it. You hear from my parents at all?"
"Uh, yeah, Nonna is still insisting you're on vacation and will be back any day now and it's a scandal that dad's dating. She insists we leave you alone and le
t you enjoy your vacation."
Molly sighed. "Your father and I have been divorced for three years now and I've been on the space station for almost a full year. You'd think she'd have given it up by now."
"She keeps asking me how I'd feel if I had a little brother or sister," Aiden said. "I told her dad should knock up the new girlfriend if he wants more kids."
"She was the most vocal about the fact that we shouldn't have any more kids," Molly said with a bitter laugh. "What'd she say, anyway?"
"That she'd never acknowledge the kids if they were with dad's new girlfriend. Which is fine because it'd be none of her business anyway."
"If Nonna wants to continue being delusional, just let her. She'll get over me leaving eventually."
"Yeah, maybe," Aiden said, his tone doubtful. "I don't think she'll ever forgive you for quitting the firm, though."
"She'll have to get over that, too," Molly said. "And I have to get back to work. Can I call you when I'm off?"
"Sure," Aiden said. "Oh, wait, I forgot why I called. Mindy and Trina want to know if you're going to use your leave to come to the convention? They got you a ticket."
"I'm going to try. I've put in for it, now I just have to see if I can hitch a ride down there. Any chance you can grab some of my clothes out of storage and bring them if I do make it?"
"Trina insisted I let her in to pick out your gear. She's driving through and said it would only take a few minutes to go through your stuff and get what you want. Do you have any requests or do you trust her to pick everything out?"
Molly laughed. "Trina has good taste. I'll let her use her judgement. Just tell her to make sure I have slippers and boots because if she leaves me in nothing but those high heeled monstrosities she insisted I get a few years ago, I'm going to go barefoot the entire time and tell everybody it's her fault."
"Mom, you're going to be barefoot half the time anyway and everybody knows it but I'll tell her to pack the slippers you'll forget to wear anyway."
"You're a good son," Molly said. "Kisses for the aunties and tell your dad I said 'hi back'."
"Love you, mom," Aiden said.
"Love you, too, baby. I'll see you soon."
The call disconnected and Molly resisted the urge to rub at her eyes. A few blinks cleared the tears that had gathered in the corner of her eyes and she refocused on the task at hand. She felt incredibly lucky. It wasn't every son that would risk jail time to call his mom at work. The fact that she suspected he did it just to prove he could had very little to do with how loved it made her feel.
She pulled out the repair stick and started the torch to heat the metals until they were both hot enough that the wall incorporated the metal from the repair stick. The visor on the tech suit went so dim it was nearly black and the only thing she could see was the flame from the torch and the metals as they warmed.
She'd turned the torch off and put the unused repair sticks away when something hit the space station. There was only a moment to wonder how close to where she was they'd been hit before the wall she'd been working on sheared away in front of her.
Chapter 2
Molly woke up to bright lights and voices. At least, she assumed they were voices. She couldn't quite make out the language they were speaking. She woke slowly, first noticing the sounds around her, then opening her eyes briefly before closing them again when the bright overhead light pierced through her brain. She flexed her toes and fingers and tried to stretch only to find her arms and legs had been restrained.
Panic shot through her and opened her eyes while she pulled at the restraints around her forearms and calves. A hand came to rest on her shoulder and she stopped struggling, trying to make out the words the owner of the hand was saying to her in such soothing tones. Whoever it was stepped to her side and she turned her head to look at him.
It was definitely male, with strong masculine features, broad shoulders and a lack of female secondary sex characteristics. It was also blue, with golden eyes, dark blue hair and short horns protruding from his head just above his ears.
Molly screamed. The creature's eyes widened, she assumed in surprise, and he started talking rapidly to her. His hand stroked her shoulder gently while he kept up a steady stream of words she couldn't understand. She felt like her heart was going to pound out of her chest and she took a deep breath to try and relax.
When he didn't attack her, and the stroking on her shoulder had begun to feel nice if more than a little awkward, Molly was finally able to get her breathing under control if not the shaking in her limbs. The creature stroking her kept glancing up at something on her other side and she had the urge to turn and see what he was looking at.
With another deep breath, she turned her head to see a screen with alien language and a very familiar set of lines. It was a heart monitor? Or, rather, a vitals monitor, she realized. Taking a deep breath, she watched some of the lines go up and others go down. She forced her heart rate to slow down and watched one of the lines drop rapidly before it evened out.
Huh.
She was in an alien medical facility.
Stories of alien abduction and experimentation ran through her head and she could feel her heart start to pound in her chest while the corresponding line on the screen jumped up again. The hand stroking her shoulder picked up its pace and she turned to look at the creature next to her.
He looked...earnest. And concerned. They weren't emotions she would have thought she'd be able to recognize on an alien face but its basic features were human enough that she thought she could understand a little of what he was saying. Even if she still didn't understand the words.
"I don't understand what you’re saying," she told him. "I mean, you're an alien, I don't understand your language. Do you, maybe, have one of those universal translators like in the movies?"
The alien looked down at her, his face puzzled.
"Uh, you probably can't understand me, either," she said with a grimace. "I don't know where you would have gotten English for your translators unless you were monitoring Earth's transmissions? I haven't heard anything about any of the extra solar stuff getting picked up but it would have taken a while for people to notice that, right?"
The alien frowned and gestured for her to keep talking. At least, that's what she hoped he was doing when he moved his hand like he was pulling something from her.
"Where did you guys come from, anyway? There wasn't anything on our long-range sensors, not even a couple meteorites. I mean, we occasionally get micro-meteors that play hell with our shielding but those are so small, they slip through the scanners on the satellites. This is a ship, right? You didn't take me back to your home world? There's no way we could have missed this."
Molly looked around. The alien stroked her shoulder and she turned back to him. He spoke to her in words she still couldn't understand but it sounded like he was encouraging her. With a sigh, she kept talking.
"I don't know what you want me to say. It looks like you're trying to get as many words from me as you can so you can train something. It's how they train dictation software, anyway, and it would make sense for you to do it like that but I don't know how you're going to get enough from me when I'm tied down and can't even gesture at things. Like, I'd like to tell you my name and have you understand that I'm talking about me and it's not just some random word."
She looked down at her arms then back up at the alien.
It gestured for her to keep going and she had an idea.
Pursing her lips shut, she made eye contact with him. It sent a jolt through her body, landing in her gut as a ball of heat that made her gasp.
He blinked.
Licking her lips, she took a deep breath, then made her lips settle in a hard line. She looked at him, raised her eyebrows, then looked down at her arms.
He followed her gaze and moved the hand that wasn't on her shoulder to her forearm. Heat shot through her as he touched her skin and she gasped again. He pulled his hand away as though he'd been burned.<
br />
"Well, that was unexpected," she said, her voice shaky. "I have definitely been in space for too long."
The alien looked up at her face and she laid her head back to focus on the ceiling. He said something that she almost felt like she understood.
"I would like my hands free," she told him, once her voice was steady again, and moved her arms in the restraints. "I promise I'm not going to attack you but this feels really awkward and it's starting to freak me out."
She pulled against the restraints again and she knew her heart rate was rising on the monitor. Try as she might to force it down, to quell the panic rising inside her, it kept growing until it was hard to breathe. The hand on her shoulder, that had been there the entire time, stroked again and she focused on how it felt.
It wasn't directly against her skin and that made her look down and realize she still had her undershirt and panties on. They were black cotton, functional and easy to clean on the space station, and they showed just how pale she'd gotten in the year she'd spent in space. Questions ran through her brain so fast she could barely process them.
How had she gotten here? Did he think these were part of her or did they have some sense of modesty? What had happened to her uniform? The tech suit? What the fuck had hit the space station? Were there other survivors? What would happen to her son if aliens invaded Earth? She'd seen all those movies and none of them left her feeling good about being there.
The hand on her shoulder stopped petting and squeezed. She squeezed her eyes shut, willing her brain to shut up long enough to get past the panic setting in. The hand that had touched her arm stroked a finger down her abdomen and she jumped.
Her eyes shot open and she glared up at him. "What the hell? Where the fuck do you get off touching me like that?"
He held the hand up apologetically but kept his other one on her shoulder. She glared at it and he squeezed. Whatever he said didn't sound like an apology and she decided it would be better to be angry than scared.
"No, you know what, no, I'm not a science experiment, I'm not some kind of specimen, you don't get to just touch me any way you want to and just think you can get away with it. Let me go right the fuck now or so help me I am going to rip that goddammed hand off when I get my hands free."