The Complete Alien's Bride

by Yamila Abraham

  “No.” He walked to Lisette’s chair. “Follow me to the lab. Hurry up.”

  She bolted up to obey. Once they got into the corridor Jorenkis ran after her and caught her arm.

  “Wait, wait.”

  Both she and Prax-Denay halted. Neither of them looked at Jorenkis.

  “I’m sorry, dearheart, okay? I didn’t mean to yell at you. We’ve been so busy here, gods, I haven’t had a wink of sleep for days.”

  Prax-Denay both scoffed and groaned.

  “Let’s have a fresh start tonight. I’ll take you out for a fine dinner. Okay?”

  Lisette resisted the urge to nod. “Okay.”

  “Great. See? We’re going to get on just fine.”

  He released her and she ran to catch up with Prax-Denay. The scientist spoke without turning back to her.

  “He may need a chatterbox to reflect his ego off of. Be assured that I’m not the same. You’re an Earth slave, here to work. I expect you to be obedient and productive. I’m perfectly fine with you keeping your mouth shut.”

  None of this was off-putting to her. Prax-Denay was going to get exactly what he wanted. At least she knew he preferred her natural demeanor. Her only anxiety was whether she could learn to be as capable as he required.

  When they entered the lab she almost swooned with rapture. Sure, the way things were molded to the floors and the strange colored plastics were alien, but this was an honest to goodness laboratory. She was home! And not just any home. This was thrice the size of the military lab she’d worked in. Over a dozen robots were whizzing around engaging the mammoth equipment. There were numerous terminals blinking data and images of slides from different experiments. God—it even had a trace of that caustic chemical smell her old lab reeked of. Tears began to fog her glasses. She snuffled.

  Prax-Denay spun on her. “What’s the matter with you?”

  Lisette cringed back. She wanted to avoid the question, but Prax-Denay kept his cruel stare fixed on her.

  “It’s a…beautiful lab.”

  His face softened by scant degrees. He looked around as though seeing the place for the first time. Then he lifted his nose.

  “Yes, I suppose it is. This is far better than what you’re used to on Earth, isn’t it?”

  She nodded.

  Something close to a smile touched his face. It was faint and short-lived. He turned his back to her and continued to a terminal.

  “Have a seat here.”

  She obeyed.

  “Let’s see if you have even the minimal competency I require.”

  He tapped a button. A DNA sequence scrolled vertically across the screen.

  “What’s this?”

  Lisette fixed on it. The dormant cogs in her brain began to spin with euphoric vigor.

  “Alien DNA,” she said.

  “Hmph,” Prax-Denay said. “That’s…somewhat more specific than what I was looking for. How about this one.” He tapped a few buttons and a different sequence scrolled.

  “Human,” she said at once. “Human DNA.”

  “Correct.” He tapped the buttons to change the sequence once more.

  Lisette squinted at it. “This…this must be hybrid.”

  “Correct. All right, you’ve passed the first test. I’ve an easy project you can begin with.” He leaned forward to turn off the terminal. “You’ll obviously have to prove yourself a great deal more before I can entrust you to—“

  “Um.”

  “What?”

  “The hybrid DNA…”

  He tapped the screen back on for her. In any other situation she would have kept silent, but this was her passion. She knew she saw something. It would have burned her insides not to show him.

  The sequence reached a certain area and she pointed to it.

  “Yes. This is caused by the Instajant vaccine. This is what keeps those parasites from infecting people. Look.” He split the screen three ways so the same area of the sequence could be seen for the human and Dak-Hiliah DNA. “Everyone vaccinated has that alteration.” He snorted. “I’m impressed you noticed it.”

  “Um…I think…” She pointed to one area in the hybrid DNA that had been altered by the vaccine. “This isn’t good.”

  Prax-Denay went silent. He leaned closer to the screen.

  “Get up. Get up!”

  She darted out of his way. He sat at the terminal and looked closer still. After several minutes he rubbed his hand over his face. “It could be nothing.” He looked at her for confirmation.

  Lisette pursed her lips. “Are the hybrids…okay?”

  He put his hand on his chin. “Who knows? The oldest one is a toddler.” He grumbled and then stood. “We need to work on this. This is the priority. Everything else is on hold.” He strode across the room.

  “I can start on seeing how the RNA is expressed,” Lisette said.

  “I’ll need to order more tissue samples. We’ve got some already—not near enough. Go work at that corner station. The robots will teach you the procedure.”

  Lisette ran to obey him. There was a slight skip to her step…nothing too noticeable.

  “Lisette!”

  She halted and turned around slowly. Why did she get so cocky? She let joy make her careless.

  Prax-Denay locked eyes with her. She swallowed.

  “Good work,” he said.

  She had to fight back a smile. He said it to her softly—and praise from hard men like him was pulling tusks from a boar. Here she’d gotten it on the very first day.

  She couldn’t remember the last time she was this happy.

  There was absolutely no reason for Prax-Denay to be so happy. The possible defect his vaccine was causing to hybrids could be catastrophic. This was the entire future generation of his people. Somehow he’d missed this and allowed thousands of his people to get damaged. Jorenkis would have a planet-wide celebration if he knew. Prax-Denay’s precious vaccine wasn’t perfect after all.

  And yet, for the first time he had the support of a fellow scientist. She had no desire to shame him, as Jorenkis did. It was fine for her to discover his mistake. She’d done him a great service. Now he could fix it before any damage was done.

  Lisette was the perfect subordinate to him. She appeared to be passionate, knowledgeable, humble, and obedient. He found himself easily calling to her across the lab about nuanced changes in the RNA proteins. Lisette was incredibly keen. Her mind could go ten steps ahead to give him insights that were not only plausible, but easily proven. Sure she mumbled and hesitated when she spoke, but his mind was keen also. He could usually figure out what she was trying to say before she managed to get it all out.

  In a single day they had a working antidote that might be the cure to the defect. He’d never seen so much progress in such a short time. With Lisette around he was no longer putting in a minimal effort. Her enthusiasm was infectious—reinvigorating him. They proceeded the whole day as if dealing with an emergency. Both he and Lisette raced around the lab, yelling to each other, and getting things done.

  It took very little training for her to learn to follow their methods. Technology had changed from what she’d had on Earth, but physiology was a constant. Lisette knew what answers she needed from the specimens to get the right solution. All she needed was guidance on how to use the robots and equipment. Her base knowledge was solid, and her intuition—remarkable.

  More testing was needed on the antidote. Still, by the end of the day they had something tangible. Something that would lead them to the answer if it wasn’t the answer itself. Prax-Denay patted her on the back with vigor.

  “Good, girl. Good, girl! You’re proving yourself invaluable.”

  Lisette giggled.

  This caused a shiver down Prax-Denay’s spine that he’d never felt before. He caught himself looking at her smile—and then being enchanted by it. It was no wonder the druid Shindray put so many restrictions on women. The creatures could worm their way into your thoughts with so little effort.

  “
If we work through the night we can get the serum ready for the first hybrid trial,” Prax-Denay said. “Are you up for it?”

  Lisette smiled and nodded. Then her stomach growled.

  “Mm, yes. First let’s break for dinner. I bet you haven’t eaten since the flight from Earth. Let’s share a meal in the kitchen. I’d like to know more about your professional background.”

  Lisette smiled at him so sweetly. She was like a happy child, but then she demurred, wet her lips, and lowered her head. Prax-Denay felt a twinge in his middle. Was this some sophisticated robot specially programmed to make him fall in love with her? She seemed to know just the faces to make, the timid gestures—all of it caused his manly, less scientific side to bristle.

  “Excuse me!”

  Lisette made the lab seem light—as if all the instruments floated a little. As soon as Jorenkis broke in everything thudded loudly back down. Prax-Denay forced himself to take a step back away from Lisette. His superior’s snide face told him the damage was already done.

  “Why are you guys still working? Has she even seen her apartment upstairs yet?”

  “She’s still working because we had immensely important things to accomplish.”

  “Oh spare me.” He went to Lisette and took both her hands into his once again. “He’s treating you like an Etiken slave. Making you run around like crazy doing all his busy work, huh? I bet you didn’t even get lunch.”

  Lisette frowned and kept her eyes downward. Prax-Denay was glad she couldn’t see his anger. One day…one day he’d slap this child’s smug face.

  Jorenkis lifted one of her hands to his mouth and kissed it. “Don’t worry, dearheart. I’m here to rescue you.” He tugged her until she started moving toward the exit of the lab. “First we need to get you cleaned up. Get you some decent clothes. Get your hair done. Some make up. Then we can go out.”

  Lisette gave Prax-Denay a distressed look.

  “Jorenkis!”

  “Shut up, Prax! You had her all day. It’s my turn.”

  “We’re working on something important, damn it!”

  He halted to sneer back at him. “Do it yourself! She’s been here one day. You’re saying you can’t get any work done without her now? You’ve worked alone for decades.” He looked at Lisette. “He’s really, really old, you know that?”

  “She wants to keep working, not spend the evening deflecting your advances.”

  “No. She wants to go out to dinner with me. Don’t you? Don’t you?”

  “Oh…um, well—it’s just—“

  “Yeah. Exactly. She wants to come.” He tugged her harder and left.

  Prax-Denay stood quivering in anger. He steadied himself on a molded shelf, then slammed the sample spinner on it to the floor. A robot zipped over to clean it up.

  After the anger came dread, such as he’d never felt before. If Jorenkis coerced her into bed with him then they were married. Lisette—with that buffoon—and there would be nothing he could do.

  But then, that was what was supposed to happen. He had no rights to her. She was not one of his caste. Jorenkis had claimed her even before she arrived. Prax-Denay placed his very manhood at risk to ever have any aspirations toward her of his own.

  And yet, he shouldn’t chide himself for his anger. The genius human deserved better. Perhaps not him, who was of the lowest caste of Dak-Hiliah, but certainly not Jorenkis either.

  No. He could not be with her as a husband. He still wanted to be with her as a colleague. At least that. He even felt like he needed her now.

  The final emotion he caved to was grief. Repugnant self-pitying grief. Tears and snot flowed like that of a blubbering child. He couldn’t even admit why he grieved. He was too proud to acknowledge it.

  Lisette was brought upstairs to what she presumed was the apartment Jorenkis had mentioned. She thought it nice to live where she worked. Her heart already ached to be back in the lab. Her mind was swirling with ideas, some of which she really needed to write down. She felt as if she floated in a euphoric haze of specimens and data. Did her room have a bed? A dresser? If anyone quizzed her later she wouldn’t know the answers.

  Jorenkis sicked robots on her who forced her out of her science high. They brusquely went about dressing her and styling her hair. She kept looking at the door hoping Prax-Denay would put an end to all and get her back to work.

  A robot made her stand in front of a mirror. The reflection of a stranger looked back at her. Yes, she still had her glasses, but her hair had been darkened and made glossy. She wore a red dress that barely hid her breasts and allowed one thigh to show. Her eyes looked like someone had taken a black marker and drawn circles around them. Her lips looked like she’d eaten too many raspberries.

  She kept staring trying to find something to like. The revealing dress was designed for someone much taller and without a tummy. She was already getting goose pimples from being too cold and with every movement she’d be worried a breast would pop out. That’s if she could walk at all. The robots had her in slippers with heels designed to make her taller. She felt like she would twist her ankle every time she went forward.

  She got a moth-eaten sweater out of her laundry bag and pulled it on.

  “No!” Jorenkis came in without knocking. “Don’t wear that ugly thing.”

  Lisette frowned. She felt so much more decent with it.

  “Come on! Hurry up and take it off.”

  She obeyed.

  “Now you’ve messed up your hair!”

  As a robot came to fix it Jorenkis picked off her glasses. She reached for them in protest.

  “You can go one night without these, right? We’ll get you into the surgical unit tomorrow to get your eyes fixed.”

  Lisette suddenly felt like crying.

  “Perfect!” Jorenkis hooked his arm in hers. “Now you’re fit to be seen.” He started down the stairs with her. “Can you suck in your stomach?”

  Lisette tried to, but then she saw Prax-Denay standing to the side of the staircase. The whorishness of her outfit felt amplified by his gaze. She tried to send an agonized look to him to say, ‘I didn’t want any of this.’ He shook his head in disappointment.

  For Jorenkis or for her? She felt a panic attack swelling within her.

  As they exited she managed to calm herself. Of course Prax-Denay knew this was all Jorenkis’ doing. She didn’t want to eat with him, and certainly she hadn’t primed herself for him. She wouldn’t have to explain tomorrow. Surely, Prax-Denay would understand.

  They went outside to a waiting hover car with a robot driver. This transported them a short distance to a small building standing between two structures that looked abandoned. An android greeted them at the door and brought them to the only occupied table in the large dim establishment. Three Dak-Hiliah men sat at the u-shaped booth: two were much older than Jorenkis and one looked to be the same age. They stared at Lisette while whispering to each other. She couldn’t discern the meaning of their smiles. Their eyes weren’t entirely cruel, but then, they didn’t seem to be smiling out of happiness. The eldest of the three was leering.

  “Don’t slouch,” Jorenkis whispered from the corner of his mouth.

  Lisette’s brow furrowed. Was she slouching? What—did he want her to walk with her boobs thrust out? Maybe he did, actually. She didn’t change her posture. The hunger and exhaustion was now hitting her. She felt too cranky to be intimidated. How long would this stupid date be and how soon could she get back to work?

  Jorenkis clasped hands with each of them before sliding into the booth. He seemed to be giving her space to sit next to him, so she did.

  “Well, well, the happy couple,” the leering one said.

  Jorenkis laughed through his nostrils. An android approached.

  “I’ll have my usual.” He tapped an invisible button in front of Lisette to light up a digital menu embedded into the table. “Order whatever you want.”

  Lisette felt a jolt of panic. Yes, she could read it, but she had no id
ea what a Creantin Moog or Double-Henrakka was. It struck her what a rude asshole Jorenkis was. He was busy asking the others what they were drinking. Prax-Denay would have given her more regard. Possibly. He was rude also, but in a more vulnerable curmudgeon sort of way. She already felt used to it.

  “Um…I don’t know what to get,” she said to the android.

  “Would you like a sampler, mistress?”

  At least the robots were nice.

  “Yes. A…big one, maybe? And…um…I’m thirsty.”

  “Of course, mistress. We’ll take care of you.” It tapped off her menu and left.

  “Come now, Joren. Introduce us to your new wife,” the youngest alien said.

  “Her name’s Lisette,” he said while beaming a smug smile. “She’s the greatest scientist on Earth. That’s why they placed her in my lab.”

  A rotund dark-haired alien with side-burns and earrings, close to the age of the leering one, blurted out a laugh. “Saying she’s the greatest scientist on Earth is hardly a boast. How many Earthlings are even left?”

  “Just about fifty times more than there are Dak-Hiliah,” Jorenkis said.

  “And how can a woman be the greatest scientist on Earth?” the youngest one said.

  “I meant the greatest female scientist on Earth, obviously,” Jorenkis said.

  Lisette felt so weary that she only half-listened. Some of what they said started to register. I’m not your wife, Jorenkis. She clenched her fist. Oh! If only she had the nerve to say it!

  “How does planet Paggellatin suit you, Lisette?” the leering man said. He had white hair that was fine enough for the blue of his scalp to show through. All three of them looked at her.

  She wet her lips. “I…just got here.”

  “You haven’t had a chance to see the sites? Jorenkis must take you.”

  “I wanted to, but that Etiken sucked her into the lab the moment she got here.”

  The one with sideburns tsked. “Poor girl.”

  The youngest one lifted his index finger. “How did his castration go?”

  Lisette’s eyes widened.

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” Jorenkis said.