Enchanted by the Alien Explorer

by Ashlyn Hawkes

  I’m happy too.

  It’s a wonderful night, and we walk back to my place hand in hand. Once we arrive, though, I realize something is wrong. Very, very wrong.

  I rush forward, almost tripping in my haste, and I gasp, a hand flying to my mouth. My stomach churns so violently I’m afraid I’m going to lose the very expensive meal I didn’t have to pay for.

  “What is it?” Rix asks, rushing to my side.

  “My measures to keep my stuff protected, it’s gone off, and… Fuck.” I close my eyes, and my shoulders slump.

  “What is it?” Rix asks, his voice low, almost a growl.

  “The levitation device… the prototype. It’s been stolen.”

  17

  Rix

  It takes a moment for Ava’s words to sink in. “What do you mean it’s been stolen?”

  “I mean it’s not there,” she snaps. She rubs her forehead. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. I just… I can’t believe it.”

  “Don’t worry. I promise you I will help you find it. We will recover it.”

  She stares up at me, and the utter hopelessness on her face makes me want to punch the one responsible. I’ll tear him from limb to limb. I thought I hated that Paul bastard, but I hate this fucker even more.

  I open my mouth, but my chip chirps, and I grimace.

  I point to my ear. “I have a call coming in. I’m sorry.”

  “You should take it,” she says, turning back to where the device had been. She glances all around, probably looking for any clues as to the identity of the thief.

  I step away. “Hello?”

  “Rix, how is it going?” the overlord asks smoothly. “I trust you’re making progress with Ava.”

  “You’re asking for an update,” I say dryly.

  "Yes. Why? Is there a holdup? I told you to do whatever was necessary including—"

  It's wrong on so many levels, but I hang up on him and turn back to Ava. I'll have to face the consequences of that sooner or later, and I'm hoping later.

  My chip chirps again and again, but I ignore the sound as much as I can.

  Ava lets out a breath as I return to her side.

  She looks up at me. “I think I know what happened,” she says slowly.

  “Well? Don’t leave me in suspense.”

  She grimaces. “A long time ago, I had a mentor. A man taught me some electronics, and he liked to invent too. One day, he lost all of his tech. The government just upped and took it, and Harry, that was his name, he couldn’t handle that. He stopped inventing and moved out west. I never heard from him again.”

  “You think the government took it,” I say.

  “Maybe they didn’t want to buy it from me because they just wanted to take it.”

  “That’s not going to be easy to prove.”

  “No, and if that is what happened, it’s going to be even harder to get it back.” Ava sets her jaw. “But I am going to get it back.”

  “Yes, we are,” I say firmly.

  She glances at me.

  “We’ll get it back for you,” I stress.

  “Hmm,” she says, but her lips have a slight curl to it.

  It’s late, of course, far too late to try to call anyone, but in the morning, Ava calls and sets up a meeting with a local government official. To say I’m nervous about all of this is an understatement. If Ava accuses her government of taking her device and they didn’t… even if they did… and I’m there for it, it won’t help relations between Earthlings and Kurians, that’s for sure, but if the Earthling government is stealing its people’s property, that can’t be allowed. The people of Earth don’t deserve to have a corrupt government.

  We sit and wait for about an hour before we’re called back for the meeting.

  The government woman wears a black dress, her hair back in a tight bun, not a strand out of place.

  “How can I help you?” she asks.

  “It’s nice to meet you in person, Karen Yeardly,” Ava says coldly.

  Karen purses her lips. “Do I know you?”

  “We spoke on the phone, Karen.”

  Her eyes narrow, and lines form around her pinched lips. “Ava.”

  “Yes, I’m Ava Kyle.”

  “You asked to speak with my supervisor,” Karen snaps. “I don’t have one.”

  “Yes, and we didn’t get a chance to talk much, but that doesn’t mean that you didn’t hear from your friend the general about my device. My levitation device.”

  “It’s possible I might or might not have heard about it. What if I did? What if I didn’t?”

  “All I know is that someone stole my device,” Ava says firmly. “I want it back.”

  “Why are you coming to me?” Karen holds out her hands before clasping them on her giant desk. “I’m not law enforcement. Maybe you should be talking to the general, although I don’t know how happy he’ll be about you stealing his phone.”

  "The general and I will have words," Ava says in an even tone. "But I want to know if you were involved."

  “Ava, Ava, Ava.” Karen sighs and shakes her head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t have time for your phone call, and I don’t have time for your nonsense now either. I’m a very busy woman, and I haven’t got all day. If you could leave now—”

  “I don’t want to leave yet. I want to know if you had anything to do with my prototype being stolen.”

  “What does it matter?” Karen grimaces. “You won’t believe me either way. I can tell you the truth, and I have. I’m busy. I don’t have time for this, and no, I didn’t ever see your device. I don’t know where it is or who might have stolen it. I don’t even know if it was stolen for that matter. You seem a bit high-strung, if I’m being honest, and you could very well be trying to make yourself look good or try to scam us. I don’t know what your intentions are, but coming here, demanding a meeting to accuse me of stealing your device… No. I won’t have that.”

  Ava stands. “I… I believe you,” she mumbles.

  Karen blinks. “About my being busy?”

  "Yes, and that you didn't take it. I don't think you had anyone else take it for you either. You didn't want to even hear about my device."

  “No. I will admit that it sounds impressive if it works,” Karen admits, “but I had no part in taking it.”

  “The general, what did he say about it?”

  Karen gestures for Ava to sit, and she does. The government woman rests her chin on her joint hands, her elbows on her desk. “He tried to downplay the device. I think he was more impressed than he let on, but he was worried. I don’t know if it was because of the calibration or if it was because of how utterly revolutionary it would be.”

  Ava’s grin is huge.

  “Yes, yes. You weren’t lying when you said it was something big, but you didn’t have to try to build up suspense. You should have just said flat out why you were calling.” Karen exhales through her nose. “If you’re going to talk to the general next—”

  “We are,” I say, speaking up for the first time.

  Karen glances at me for the first time and nods. “Then I suggest that you don’t beat around the bush with him. I have to say that stalling is not his way. He’s a good man, stern, no-nonsense, and that’s why I just don’t see it.”

  “It’s not as if this hasn’t happened before,” Ava says evenly.

  “Perhaps with other people, but not with me, and I can’t believe the general would’ve had a part in anything like this ever. He’s a good man, and he’ll be retiring soon. Honestly, he should’ve retired already. He’s up there.”

  “So maybe he wanted to have a shortcut, to have one last mark in his case file, another tally for the good,” Ava says.

  Karen shrugs. "I'll set up the meeting for you if you would like."

  “No. We’ll just go on the base and not leave until he sees us.” Ava grins. “I’m sorry I’ve been a bit… ah…”

  "It's all right," Karen says. "I've been a bitch myself. So much stress, but that's no
excuse. Peace isn't easy to maintain, but it is being maintained."

  “Is it?” I challenge. “Because whether it was the government, the military, or someone else, someone stole Ava’s prototype.”

  Karen grimaces and nods. “Yes, and whoever it was will face justice. I will see to it myself.”

  We leave, and I eye Ava. “You really believe her?”

  “I’ve gotten good at reading people’s faces and can detect lies fairly easily. I’ve done a lot of observing people despite staying away from them for the most part. Yes, I believe her. Come on. Let’s go to the base.”

  It’s a long walk there, but Ava marches at full force, never once slowing down, and I stay beside her easily, helped by my long strides.

  It’s a two-hour wait before General Spencer Moore will see us.

  “What is it you want, Ava?” the general asks. “Rix, it is good to see you.”

  “Is it?” I ask.

  The general scowls. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Did Karen call you at all today?” Ava asks.

  “No. Why?” The general lifts his eyebrows. “You’re the one who stole my phone.”

  “I borrowed it, yes.” Ava leans forward. “Someone stole my levitation device. Was it you or one of yours?”

  The general crosses his arms. “I can’t believe you would ask that, that either of you would think that.”

  I grimace. “Ava, maybe it wasn’t the government or the military.”

  “No one else knows about the device except for you! If not them, then who?” She throws up her hands.

  “I must say that hearing this does alarm me,” the general says. He rubs his chin. “I’ve been thinking about the device more and more, and honestly, it could be something extraordinary if it could be perfected.”

  “That’s why it’s a fucking prototype,” Ava spits out. “It needs more tests, yes, more trial runs, and it especially has to be seen if adding a carbon-based life form on board changes anything, which it shouldn’t, but still. Tests need to be done, but that can only happen with the prototype in hand!”

  “I will be willing to lend you men to help you search—”

  “No, thank you,” she says stiffly.

  “What about access to a centuricar? I can provide you one.”

  “How will that help?” Ava snaps.

  The general grimaces. “What can I do to help you? Do you want guards at your place to protect the rest of your equipment?”

  “That might be a good idea?” I murmur to Ava.

  “Fine.”

  The general taps on his watch. “You’ll have two guards there within the hour.”

  “You know where I live?” Ava asks.

  The general just looks at her.

  “Of course you do,” she mumbles.

  We head out of there a few minutes later, and Ava leans against me as if trying to draw strength from me. Then, she marches back toward her place, and I follow.

  Somehow, I get the feeling I’m always going to follow her. She’s an amazing woman, and we’ll get past this, and then, maybe we can be amazing together.

  18

  Ava

  Honestly, I’m ready to lose it. This is such fucking bullshit, and I can’t handle it. I won’t. My life has been so shitty, and I finally did something right, and now, it’s been stolen away.

  It’s not fair.

  Life isn’t fair. Everyone knows that, but some experience it more than most, and I’m sick of it.

  Rix being here with me helps, and I really appreciate his presence during the meetings.

  By the time we near my place, I slow down and glance at him.

  “I feel like an ass,” I mumble.

  “Why?”

  “Because I went off on them. Karen is a bit of a bitch, yes, but she was telling the truth, and the general might not have jumped up and down when I showed him the device, but the demonstration didn’t quite go as planned. He’s not that bad of a guy, and I accused both of them of stealing from me.”

  “You’re upset. It’s understandable.”

  “Understandable or not, if I want to become an inventor and maybe sell my devices under my terms and stipulations, then I need to become more of a people person, and I need to be able to better handle my emotions.”

  “Hey, you don’t have to be so hard on yourself,” he says, reaching out to squeeze my shoulder.

  I place my hand on his and stare into his neon green eyes. “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For being here.” I lean up to kiss his cheek, but he turns, and our lips brush.

  For a moment, I give in and lean against him. Heat sears from his touch, and he pulls me close, drawing me in, and I start to part my lips when I recall that guards are heading this way.

  I pull back and clear my throat. “We, ah, need to handle this now. If whatever happened—”

  “You don’t think it’s Paul, do you?” Rix asks.

  “No. This place is where I bunkered down after he screwed me. He would have no idea I’m here. I’m just worried that whoever stole it isn’t going to realize what it is and will sell everything for parts. If that’s the case, that’s years of research all gone. If I can’t copy over all of that data… I should’ve done that before, but I didn’t have another motherboard—”

  “Ava, it’s all right,” Rix murmurs.

  “Nothing will be all right until I have it back.”

  We head back to my place, and I look everywhere. There are no signs of another person being here, no footprints, nothing. The wagon's gone too, but there are no tracks that I can tell that haven't been from me. That's a dead end.

  My hands grip my hair. I’m ready to yank out the strands, but I force myself to take several deep breaths. I can handle this. I can, and I will. First, I just need to think.

  I glance all around, and my gaze falls on an old camera. It’s a security cam, but I haven’t been able to access the footage in years. I don’t even know if it’s still recording anything or not.

  “Rix, do you think we can head to your ship?” I ask.

  “You want to finish the tour?” he jokes.

  “Not now. Maybe later,” I say distractedly as I detach the camera from up in its perch in the tree. “I need to see if I can access this footage.”

  “That’s electrical, not plasma,” he says.

  “Yes, but if you have a convertor—”

  “I don’t.”

  “I do.”

  “You do?” he asks, surprised. “Of course you do. Why wouldn’t you?”

  I grin. “I have a decent haul of your tech actually. I’ve been to a lot of sites of down ships, and I stripped a lot for parts. If you’re an explorer, I’m a scavenger.”

  “I think I wouldn’t mind if you scavenge my body.”

  “That just sounds wrong,” I inform him, and we both laugh. It’s nice to be able to joke, and for a moment, I’m happy.

  It only lasts a moment, though, and by the time we reach his ship, I’m exhausted. My body hates all of this walking, and the amount of stress I’m under is immense. My head is splitting, and my lower back aches. I just want to collapse onto a bed, maybe have Rix massage me, and sleep. No sex. Not yet. We’ll get there. I know we will, and that does frighten me a bit, but I think I can handle it. I know I can. I’m willing to at least, but only after we recover my levitation device.

  Rix gets to work hooking up the convertor, and it takes a lot of tinkering and curses and sparks and almost setting a fire, but there's footage. Somehow, there's footage, and I rewind until reach the point of the footage where I spy movement.

  “I love past me,” I mumble.

  “Why’s that?” Rix asks.

  “Because I forgot that I backed up all of the data on the camera to the cloud. I hacked into the server. I wasn’t sure if there would be footage on this thing, if it would be full. If I hadn’t used the digital space, it would’ve been backed up, but I was smart. So very smart.”

  “
You forgot humble.”

  “That too.” I grimace and have a bit more trial and error to get the footage to come in clearer. To my surprise, the person seems a bit smaller than I would’ve thought. Curvier. A woman.

  “Wait. Rewind,” Rix instructs.

  I do that, and he shifts to stand in front of the screen we’re viewing the footage on. He mumbles a curse, zooms in on the woman’s face, and curses again.

  “Do you know who she is?” I ask, crossing my arms. “Because I sure don’t.”

  "I'm pretty sure she hit on me before," Rix says. He rubs his chin. "One of my friends knew her by name. They might be back from their assignment. Do you mind if I go and fetch one of them so they can give us her name? I think it might be similar to my mom's name. Rachel. It began with an 'R' I'm pretty sure."

  “Rory? Reagan? Um… Rebecca—”

  “Rebecca. That might be it, but they’ll know her last name, maybe where she lives too.”

  Rix starts to leave, pauses, comes right back to me, kisses me full on the lips, and then leaves. My fingers brush against my lips, and I sigh. His excitement has me excited, but I’m also furious. Who the hell is this chick? Why did she steal my device? It couldn’t have been because of jealous, could it? Did she follow him here one time? Does he have a stalker?

  Even if this mystery chick isn't a stalker, it's not that inconceivable for Rix to have one in the future, given how women flock to him. Can I handle that if we do have a long-term relationship? I'm not a people person, and to have women constantly vying for my man doesn't seem appealing at all. Not one little bit.

  But first things first. Device and then dessert. I mean, device and then dating.

  Rix returns with Simon, and I grimace.

  “You’re friends with him?” I ask.

  “Nice to meet you too,” Simon jokes.

  I scowl. “As if we don’t already know each other.”

  “You two do?” Rix asks, confused.

  “Yeah, we talked to you about her, remember?”

  “My friends are how I learned your name,” Rix says.

  “It’s not hard to know me. Just ask about the purple-haired woman.” I glare at Simon.