by Maia Starr
I made a fresh pot of coffee and tried to piece together what happened. I remembered the lieutenant telling us he had a hunch that this was an inside job, our case. I remember thinking that was just perfect, that my first case was going to be an internal affairs nightmare, and washing down the agony of knowing that with lots of tequila. Then I remembered convincing myself that it was basically my last night of drinking on Earth. Who knows what could happen to me in space? I might never return, so I had convinced myself to get plastered. Then suddenly a flash of being high in the sky soaring over buildings came over me.
"Oh my God. He flew… he flew with me in his arms. I remember, it was amazing,” I said to myself as I walked over to the window and peered out over the skyline of the city. I can't believe that actually had happened. I really thought it was a dream, but now I remember him landing on the roof. And then I remembered… “No! No, no, no… Melinda you did not do what I think you did,” I said to myself as I ran my fingers over my lips.
I remembered touching Commander Handor’s shiny scales with my hands and that had led to a passionate kiss, one that had made my knees weak, or maybe it was just that I was that drunk. But I knew deep down inside that I had begged for more, and he had pushed me away. How embarrassing is that?! But if he pushed me away, then why did I wake up naked? I did not have any flashes of memory of him making love to me. So that must be a good sign. The last thing I remembered was falling asleep. I had to know what happened, but I knew that my pride was not going to let me ask him.
“Shit, you just made this case way more complicated than it needed to be, Melinda. And on your first day of your promotion. You know you can't hold your drink,” I said to myself as I walk to the bathroom to take a shower and wake myself up and pretend like this didn't happen. It would be the only way that I would be able to look Commander Handor in the face. I would have to pretend like I didn't remember anything at all.
I wondered if he saw me naked? I was so damn embarrassed. I got sloppy drunk and made a fool out of myself, throwing myself at him, letting him fly me over the city. I was so ashamed of my behavior, and from now on, I knew I would have to keep it in check. It was a good thing we were leaving on the mission the next morning, because at least then I would not be getting drunk. At least then I would be working on the mission twenty-four hours a day. I got dressed ready to go into the office hours early, hopeful I could get some work done and do more research before Commander Handor came into the office.
I got in two hours of solid research while the office was quiet and only a few agents were in. I looked over photos of all the women that had vanished, especially Katie Cormick. She was a tall and very lean blonde with big blue eyes. She looked very dainty and very elegant, almost regal. She definitely had the look of someone that was raised with money and never had to work a day in her life. She was the complete opposite of me with her pale skin and delicate features that made her look very fragile. I could see how she was desirable to a race that valued obedient females.
I looked at the photo feeling very guilty. I was supposed to be helping this woman and instead I was throwing myself at her fiancé. My first day on the job and I was already personally involving myself in the case that I should be solving. How could I have messed up so badly? I was never drinking again.
I needed to focus, and that focus landed on the conversation that the lieutenant had with us in the bar. The fact that he needed to have that conversation outside of the office was also a major warning to me. I could not stop thinking about why the lieutenant thought that it was something internal. Why would anyone at the department want to have a part in the vanishing of human females that were destined to become the wives of Drackon warriors? It didn't make sense to me.
As far as I had known, most of the department and the government were very pro Drackon relations. Even the captain himself had a daughter that had married a Drackon warrior a couple of years before. Everyone had embraced the technology and the trades that the Drackon race had brought to Earth. The women absolutely loved them, and now, after my brief encounter last night, I knew why.
No matter how hard I tried to focus on my work, I kept getting flashes of Commander Handor pulling me into his arms and kissing me. I kept getting flashes of watching him shift, shiny scales emerging across his shoulder and torso, with silver wings coming out of his back. Six-pack abs and toned muscle formed all part of the beautiful creature that I saw before my eyes the night before. I now understood. I was a little jealous that I had not allowed myself to indulge before; I had always been too busy with work and never met a Drackon in my life until yesterday. Their arrogance and disrespect for women had always turned me off, and yet all it took was for one to shift in front of me and I melted into his arms. “Pathetic, Mel," I whispered to myself.
"What is? What is pathetic?” I heard a deep voice say. I looked up from my desk to see Commander Handor hovering over me with a stupid grin on his face. I felt my face turn bright red, but my stubbornness and pride would not allow me to admit my embarrassment.
"Nothing, Commander Handor,” was all I could come up with.
He leaned casually against the window in front of me and said, “Are you sure about that? How are you feeling this morning?”
I narrowed my eyes at him and said, “That is none of your business."
I stood up for my desk and began to walk away from him as he said, “I would think it is my business after last night.”
I froze in my tracks. I walked over to him and looked around to make sure no one was watching us and then I whispered, “What did happen last night? Did we… did you…?” But I could not get the words out of my mouth. “I woke up naked. Why?” I said sternly to him.
"Do you mean… did I make love to you with expert skills that drove you wild?” he whispered to me. His description and the way he said the words pulled a reaction from me and my body, which was betraying me at the moment. How did he do that? He was being an arrogant jerk and yet my body was responding to him.
I narrowed my eyes at him and crossed my arms in front of my chest. “Well?” I asked.
"No, I did not. Even though you were practically begging me for it. You gave me quite a show, a drunken striptease, if you will. It was quite humorous; thanks for the laughs. Now are you ready to get to work?"
"What?!” I shouted in response to him telling me that I stripped off my clothes in front of him. My angry reaction had a few employees look in my direction. I quieted down out of embarrassment as I stomped after the Drackon as he walked toward the elevator.
"What do you mean I gave you a show? And what do you mean it was funny? That's not exactly what a woman wants to hear about her naked body,” I angrily whispered to him.
He laughed in response and said, “We are going to the firing range. You also admitted in your drunken state that you have never been out in the field on a ship or on another planet. I refuse to have you as a partner unless you at least get a few hours of training on what it's like to actually be on the ship with a blaster gun and on another planet.”
"I trained with the blaster gun before,” I said to him angrily. The nerve of this jerk! He just kept going and going.
"Not like this. Are you coming or not?” he asked me. I sighed in resignation and followed him. Moments later, I found myself inside a ship simulator and Commander Handor was instructing me. He showed me how to aim in order to not hit vital areas of a ship. He taught me how to use the seats and various consoles and tables for cover; these were things that I had not been trained on before but thought would come to me easily. But it did make a difference to have a trained Drackon warrior showing me what to do. I was impressed with his maneuvers and various tricks. And he was right: I felt more confident after actually shooting a blaster gun inside the tight space of a spaceship, even a simulator one. It gave me more confidence and I felt ready for anything.
"That was not bad at all, rookie. You have good aim, but the training is nothing like the real thing. I hope you're ready b
ecause we leave in a matter of hours. Get some sleep tonight, not like the drunken show you did last night. You have to be rested and prepared. I'll see you at the launch in the morning,” Commander Handor said to me.
"Yes, I'll see you at the launch, and thanks for this,” I said. After he left, I went to see Alfonso. “I leave in the morning,” I said to him.
He gave me a big hug and said, “I'll miss you. Take care of yourself. It's a dangerous place out there; aliens are not humans.”
"Yes, I am finding that out with my new partner,” I said to him.
"Is he mean to you? If he is, let me know and I'll kick his ass,” he said to me playfully.
"No, not mean, just different. It takes some adjusting, but he does have some skills that will come in handy, and as the captain said, he knows space better than anyone. I need him,” I said, admitting to him what I would never admit to Commander Handor.
"Then I am glad that he will be at your side supporting you, backing you up. It's very dangerous to go into space, but to deal with criminals in space is even worse."
"Wish me luck, but don't forget about what I asked you. My favor, it might be more important than I ever thought,” I said to him.
"I didn't forget. I'll watch him for you. Good luck,” he said as he gave me a hug and I left to go to my desk and wrap up a few things before heading home. I packed lightly, as I would mostly be wearing the spacesuit issued by the department along with their boots and accessories. But I always packed a clever disguise. Sometimes it was important for an investigative detective not to look like a detective in order to get information. I went to bed early, ready to get an early start.
The next day I found myself in the most amazing position, one I never thought I would experience: I was peering out the small window of a spaceship at the blackness of space.
"It is beautiful, isn't it?” Commander Handor asked me as he stood beside me.
"It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my entire life,” I said as my eyes began to water at the sight before me. I was on a very small and fast spaceship with a small crew. It was Commander Handor and myself, along with one pilot and one medic. The quarters were small and the sleeping pads had room for a small bed, and that was all.
We had to take a small ship because this was a mission that was very time sensitive. The longer we took, the more we were in danger of losing the females all together. It had already been three days since they had gone missing, and the more time we wasted traveling at is slow speed, the further away they could get from us. Therefore we were in a small, fast ship with a skeleton crew. A larger ship would have to go at a slower speed and there would be more people needed to crew it.
"If you think that is beautiful, come take a look at this,” Commander Handor said as he walked over to the other side of the common room of the ship. I followed him and looked out the window and gasped at what I saw. It was the blue marble of Earth, and it was my first time seeing it from space. It was absolutely enchanting and amazing. I would never take for granted my planet after seeing this view.
"It is beautiful. I find that I am most enchanted with my planet of Mooreah when I am on a ship looking at it from space. It is then that I miss it the most and can see it for all its beauty."
I looked at him while he had this genuine moment of longing for his home planet. There really was something under the surface of his arrogant and mean comments that he always dished out to me. He did have a heart. As I looked at him, I wondered exactly what had happened on the roof the other night. I had to know.
"Commander Handor,” I began to say but he cut me off and said, “Melinda, call me Eniv.”
"All right, Eniv, tell me what happened on the roof the other night. I can only remember bits and pieces. Tell me the truth,” I said to him quietly.
He looked at me stunned and said, “Does it really matter?”
"It does to me. I don't like having missing information,” I said to him in all honesty.
"I shifted and flew you home, landing on the roof, and when I set you down on your feet, your hands went to my chest and my scales. You let your hands move over them, touching them lightly, and it turned me on. You looked up at me with your wide, brown eyes and I couldn't help myself. I pulled you to me kissed you. You moaned; you liked it. It gave me permission to continue kissing you and feeling your body.”
"Oh…” was all I could say, as his description was turning me on. I was starting to recall that moment and I remembered my hands moving over the shiny silver scales and how they felt under my fingers. “Then what happened?” I asked him, wanting him to continue the story.
"I knew that I would not be able to restrain myself any longer. I would want more from you. That was when I remembered that I am a taken Drackon. I am promised to another. I remembered that the one I am promised to is in danger and I should not be indulging with another human female. It is wrong, so I pushed you away."
"Right,” I said, remembering the sting of rejection and how it felt. But now hearing his words about why he rejected me, I looked at him in a new light. As my eyes moved over his face, he became even more attractive to me. This weredragon wasn't just all arrogance, ego, and conceit. He actually had a conscience and his beautiful, light-gray eyes were filled with guilt at this moment. He moved his head, looking down at the floor, and a piece of thick, black hair fell over his forehead. I resisted the urge to pull it back. He was actually feeling in a conflict about kissing me when he already had a bride, one that was in peril. It only made me want him more, and I also filled with guilt at the thought. Then I remembered something else, and it was something that he did not mention. Had I dreamt it?
"Did you tell me something about the way I smell?” I asked him.
"What! No, nope, I don't know what you're talking about,” he said really fast and moved away from me to the table on the other side of the common room and grabbed a bottle of water. He chugged it down really fast.
"Yes, I remember you pulling me to you, or picking me up, and then you said something about the way I smell,” I said walking over to him.
"No, you’re mistaken. Now, back to the case. I should prepare you for the environment of Sala. The outposts are small, but very dangerous. It is outlaw territory. There is no one there to enforce the laws. It is every Drackon for himself.”
I knew that he was pivoting off the topic, which made me think that I was absolutely right that he had said something about the way I smelled and that it drove him wild. But we did need to talk about the mission, and I did want to be prepared. But something he said had my attention. “How small are these outposts?” I asked.
"Each outpost is different, but there's only a few buildings and maybe 100 to 300 Drackon at each of them, always coming and going. Lots of traffic in and out," he said. Then he continued, “Why do you ask?”
"Well it seems to me, if I were a criminal that was kidnapping human females, I would take them to a bigger place. I would not take them to a small place where they would obviously stand out. Wouldn't reports come in about captive human females at these outposts? Wouldn't they be easily see?,” I asked him with my wheels turning in my mind. I was onto something.
He gave me with a startled look and put the water bottle down on the table. Then he stared at the wall and said, “I had not thought of that before. Your agency had us on track to check out the outposts to gather information. They want us to go there to do some questioning of the known criminal elements that are there. Get information from them with a little violent persuasion,” he said.
"And while we're doing that, we're wasting time. The human females are being taken somewhere, and that is happening while we're going from outpost to outpost, looking for breadcrumbs that could lead nowhere,” I said to him, walking back and forth in the room as I thought this out.
"Yes, it would steal a lot of time from us. It would be days before we found anyone that we could get information from,” he said.
I looked at him and put my arm on his, sto
pping him and said, “So if you were a criminal stealing human females, many of them, where would you take them in order to hide them? Mooreah?”
"No, that would be too obvious. I would take them to Riolb,” he said to me. We both looked at each other as though a light bulb had been turned on. It was dumb that neither of us had thought of this. Riolb was a known outlaw planet, not only for the Drackon race, but for other alien races as well.
"The outlaw planet,” I said to him. “I have heard of it. But as far as I know, no one at I.S.F.A. has been there.”
"That is probably why your department had us starting on Sala instead of going straight to Riolb,” he said.
"Or, the lieutenant is right and it is an inside job with the department and they are sending us to Sala on purpose, a wild goose chase. They don't want us to find the human females. They are setting us up for failure,” I said to him.
His eyes grew wide as he looked at me with acknowledgment that he thought we were being set up as well. Then he said, “We should re-route ourselves from Sala to Riolb. There is no point in wasting time on Sala. I have heard about auctions on Riolb. We could start there,” he said.