Gia had returned, holding a wicker basket, which she set on the floor some distance away from her friend and the alien, and then pushed forward with her foot.
“For shit’s sake Gia,” Becca said, rolling her eyes as she glanced at her friend. “He’s hurt. He isn’t going to shoot us with a phaser or anything.”
Gia didn’t reply, she just retreated to the doorway, turning and watching as her friend began to peel the bloodied bandages from the alien’s stomach.
“Oh God,” Becca said when the bandages had been removed. The wound was even worse than she had feared, a deep gash with ragged edges and blue blood still seeping. “I have to clean this out,” she told the alien. He nodded at her. She wanted to ask how he knew to nod; if he had learned that when he had learned English, however he had done that, but just then wasn’t the time. “It’s going to hurt,” she added.
She took a brown bottle of medical alcohol from the basket and unscrewed the white lid. “Gia, can you get me a towel? A little one?”
Gia left and returned quickly, passing over a towel meant for drying hands. Becca tipped the bottle over, holding the opening against the towel, and wet a corner of the cloth in alcohol. “Okay,” she said, as a warning, and then she pressed the towel against Key’s wound.
The alien groaned and his body tensed under her touch, but she took her time and cleaned his wound carefully. When she was done the wound looked better, still ragged and deep, but with no blood or gunk any more.
“Can you sit up?” Becca asked, and the alien nodded, allowing her to help him into a sitting position. The she pulled his arms out of the sleeves of his jumpsuit, and rolled the material down, leaving him completely bare to his hips. She had a moment where she realized how solidly built the alien was, and she felt a stirring in her loins. He was rock-hard, in terms of his abs and muscular arms, and her fingertips couldn’t help but brush his hot flesh. She shoved any sexual thoughts from her head quickly, and got to work.
There was a roll of gauze in her basket and she pulled it free, unspooling some and then working to wrap it around Key’s torso. She worked slowly and carefully, and when she was done the alien was happy to lie back down again.
“Thank you,” he said, and again Becca noted how perfectly he spoke, with no accent whatsoever. She didn’t know what an accent from outer-space would sound like, but she had expected him to have one. His speech was stilted and he spoke slowly, but he really did speak perfectly.
“How did you learn to speak English?” she asked, not backing away from the being, and keeping one hand on his stomach, over the bandages. He reached down and took her hand, and Becca felt a jolt of … something flash through her body. Surprise? Glee? Desire? She wasn’t sure. She glanced at Gia, who still stood in the doorway, and her roommate frowned, but still Becca did not pull her hand away.
“I have been studying your planet for years. My species, we came from a planet called Zion, or at least that’s close enough in your tongue. We called it - ” and here the alien spoke, but his lips did not move. He was speaking, but only with his throat, a strange guttural sound that Becca could never hope to replicate. “But it roughly translates to Zion. Our planet was dying, and we found yours. We could survive here, but we wanted to learn about Earth. We didn’t want to just appear; we knew it could be seen as a sign of force. We thought we had millennia. I worked on a small station, using the wormhole technology to keep an eye on your people. To learn. There were five of us.”
“But your planet died?” Becca asked.
“Yes, but not on its own, not as we had thought. Another species found us, and they wiped us out. Evil things. They called themselves the Aeon. My planet was killed, and my fellow Zionist’s were hunted down. They wiped us from the galaxy. They found my team and me, and they attacked. I got away, the others did not.”
Becca blinked and felt the hot sting of salty tears. Key really was the only being left, of his species. The idea frightened her, and she couldn’t imagine how he felt.
“Why are you called Key?” Gia asked from the doorway, and the alien looked to her. If he was surprised that someone else had been there when he arrived, he had yet to show it.
“My name is - ” and again he spoke with his throat, but the first syllable was clearly recognizable as Key, and the two Earth woman understood why he had shortened it.
Gia nodded, and opened her mouth to speak, but Becca spoke first.
“What are you going to do?”
“I do not know,” Key said truthfully. “There must be someone I can speak with; someone in charge who can help me. I require nothing other than somewhere to exist. My people are gone. I am not a threat. They can help me, your leaders.”
Becca thought of the man in the dark suit who had been speaking to Tom two weeks previous. She wondered if what Key was saying was true. Would her leaders help him? Or would they cut into him in an effort to learn about aliens.
“I don’t know,” Becca said. “I don’t want anyone to hurt you. You can stay here, and let me check things out.”
“Becca, could I speak to you please?” Gia asked, and Becca sighed and stood. They went out into the living room, leaving Key to close his yellow eyes and lie on the floor in Becca’s bedroom.
“Are you serious? You need to call someone, and you need to get the alien out of our house!” Gia started as soon as they were out of the alien’s earshot.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Becca said. “I don’t know that they would help him. The government, they may take him to do tests. They may kill him!”
“You don’t know that,” Gia said.
“No, but I can’t know that they won’t.”
“He can’t stay here! He’s an alien! He’s blue!”
“He’s hurt. I have to take care of him, at least while I figure out what the best option is. I want to keep him safe.”
Gia sighed, but she was a good-hearted person, and soon she was nodding. “Yeah,” she said. “This is crazy.”
Becca grinned. She was finally letting what had happened sink in. “It’s so nuts,” she said.
Gia let a playful smirk spread across her lips. “He’s kind of hot, right? Like, for a blue guy.”
Becca laughed. “Are you seriously thinking about that right now?”
“Come on, he grabbed your hand and you liked it. Don’t lie to me!”
Becca didn’t have anything to say to that. “I have to go check on him,” she said, and she turned and hurried back to her room.
Key was just where she had left him. His eyes were closed, but she could tell he was not sleeping. She knelt down beside him and he opened his eyes. She placed her hand on his bare chest. “Are you okay?”
He nodded softly.
“Can I ask you a question?”
Again, the alien nodded.
“How do you know to nod?” Becca asked. “Is it something you learned from studying Earth?”
Key laughed, wincing as his body shook with mirth. “No, some things are universal I suppose,” he said.
“That’s ... interesting,” Becca said.
“Yes. There is a lot for you to learn,” Key said.
“Okay, well, I was speaking with my roommate, the other girl. Her name is Gia, and she thinks you should stay here for a bit. I think we should focus on getting you healthy, and then we can work out our next step.”
“I’ll stay here?” the alien asked.
Becca nodded. “It’s for the best.”
“Okay,” Key said, trusting in her judgement. “I have a request.”
“Yes?”
“Can I sleep? I’m sure you have hundreds of questions, but I was hoping I could just sleep, right now, and answer them in the morning.”
Becca smiled and nodded. “Sure,” she said. She helped the muscular alien to his feet, and he took two steps to the bed and lay down. Becca covered him and left the room. She would sleep on the couch tonight.
Chapter Eight
The morning after Key arrive
d, Becca called in to take off from work. Gia usually worked from home, but had been working at the office more lately, as they were acquiring a large client for her company. She offered to stay as well, but Becca shook her head.
“No, this is big for you guys, you need to be there.”
Gia arched an eyebrow. “I don’t know how I feel leaving you alone with an alien.”
“I’ll be fine. He’s kind. He’s injured. Nothing will happen.”
Gia sighed and dug into her purse for a moment. “Here,” she said, holding her hand out. “You keep this.”
Becca looked down and saw that her friend was offering her a small can of mace, which clipped to a key ring. She laughed softly but took it, knowing that her friend was only looking out for her. “Thank you,” Becca said. Gia nodded, and then the woman left.
Becca’s heart began to pound then at the prospect of entering her bedroom to speak with Key. She didn’t know why that thought made her so nervous, but she thought it had to do with Gia’s not being there any longer. Was she nervous to be alone with the alien because she was worried about her safety? She didn’t think that was quite right.
She went into the kitchen first, and busied herself with making a piece of toast for the being from space. She wavered a minute as she decided whether he would like butter or jam, or nothing, but she decided on butter and spread it quickly across the surface of the toasted bread. She set the toast on a plate and carried it to her room.
Key was awake, and he turned his head to look at her when she came in.
“I brought you breakfast,” she said, her voice nervous. “Do you eat breakfast? We always start the day with a meal …”
Key smiled and nodded. “Yes, we eat breakfast,” he said. “That smells pleasing.”
“It’s not much, I thought since you were hurt, we could start light,” Becca said. She moved to the side of her bed and sat down on the edge, offering Key the plate. He looked at the toast for a moment.
“You call this bread, yes? We have something similar,” Key said, and then he sighed. “Well, we had something similar, I should say.”
Becca looked at the alien, sadly. She couldn’t imagine what he must be going through. She reached down and placed her hand on his shoulder. She opened her mouth to tell him how sorry she was, but he shook his head, and she knew that he meant that he did not want to talk about it. He smiled then, and lifted the toast to his mouth. He took a bite, and then laughed.
“This is good,” he said.
Becca laughed. “We have a lot better than that here on Earth.”
“I’m going to enjoy trying it,” Key said, and then he quickly wolfed down the rest of the toast.”
“Would you like some more?” she asked.
“Perhaps one more,” Key said, nodding.
“How about some coffee?”
Key laughed and shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know what that is, so why not?”
Becca laughed and took the plate back. She went to the kitchen and started the coffee maker, and then busied herself preparing another piece of toast. When she was done with that, she poured coffee into two mugs and added milk to both, before taking it all back to the bedroom. Key looked at her.
“A feast,” he said as she placed the plate upon his lap and the mug in his hand. Becca laughed.
“Not quite,” she said as he quickly ate the second piece of toast. Then it was time to try the coffee.
“A hot beverage?” He asked. She was impressed he knew the word beverage.
“Your people didn’t have coffee?”
“Nothing hot. Not to drink. My world was like your deserts, however. We valued cold drinks across the planet.”
“Your whole planet was a desert?”
“Yes.”
“Like Star Wars?”
“What is Star Wars?”
Becca laughed. “Never mind.”
She watched as Key put his lips to the rim of the coffee mug and tilted it. He sipped a bit and made a face. “Intense,” he said, and the girl laughed.
“It’s caffeine. It can be intense,” she said as he took another sip.
“I don’t know what caffeine is,” Key said truthfully.
“It keeps you awake. Gives you energy, I guess you could say,” Becca explained.
“I see,” Key said. “We have something similar, a fruit called Borca. Eat it, and it keeps you up all night.”
“That’s coffee here. Caffeine, it’s in a lot of stuff. It’s a plant. But coffee in the morning keeps you going all day.”
“Well, it’s not bad,” Key said, taking another sip. He set the plate and mug aside then and looked at the young woman.
“You are a beautiful human, yes?” he asked.
Becca felt her cheeks grow warm, and she knew she was blushing. “I don’t know,” she said.
“That is what you call modesty, I believe,” Key said, and Becca laughed.
“Okay, yes I am attractive.”
“I am attractive as well, in my own species. I know I must look monstrous to you.”
Becca shook her head. “You don’t look like a monster.”
Key smiled. “I do not think you look like a monster, either.”
Key smiled and nodded, and then the smile faded, and he suddenly got serious. “I supposed you have many questions.”
Becca shrugged her shoulders. “It can wait,” she said.
“I’m not going anywhere. My stomach hurts. My wound must heal; we may as well answer the other’s questions.”
“You have questions?” Becca asked.
“Of course,” Key said.
“Okay, ask me one,” Becca said.
“Why are you hesitant to take me to your authorities? Surely they would be interested in hearing from me.”
Becca took a long moment to answer. Finally, she decided on the truth. “I’m afraid they would kill you.”
“Kill me? I am no threat to them.”
“Kill you to study you. To see what your insides are like.”
Key was quiet for a moment. “We have something called a spectrometer, in your language of course. It’s weird using my lips to speak so much, we use our throats. But a spectrometer, it can show what is inside.”
“We have something similar, but it works best on bones.”
“I don’t have bones.”
Becca was surprised. “You don’t?”
Key laughed. “I do, I was just kidding. That’s what you call it, yes? Kidding?”
Becca laughed and nodded. “Yes.”
“Okay, I asked a question and you answered it. Now you ask.”
“What are you going to do here? On Earth.”
“Just exist. Live. I have no plans. I just needed to get here. My species, we are finished. I have no woman with whom to mate. I will exist, and then I will pass, and that will be that.”
Becca was nodding sadly.
“Why did ... Gia you said? Why did Gia not want me to stay?”
“She’s scared, I suppose,” Becca said. “You’re from outer space.”
Key laughed. “Understandable,” he said.
“How long does your species live on average?”
“Good question. I already know a lot about your species, but you know nothing of mine. Our years are different, of course, but converted to yours, I would say two-hundred-and-fifty.”
“Oh, wow,” Becca said.
“That’s about a hundred years on my planet.”
Whenever he spoke about his home-world, she could see the sadness and yearning in his eyes. It was Becca’s turn again, to ask a question.
“What was your planet like?” she asked.
Key was quiet for a moment, but then he smiled. “Hot,” he said with a laugh. “Hot and hard, but beautiful. There were small stretches of green - forests, in only a few spots. To see it with your own eyes, after a lifetime of red and orange sand, it was something else. Water existed underground, cool and calm in cave springs. The sky shone like gold when the sun rose
or fell. We did well in a harsh land. We made it beautiful; we built great cities.”
“Did you have a wife?”
Becca could help herself, the question came spilling from her mouth before she could stop from asking it. Key looked to her. “I did have a mate. I understand you marry, but we did not. We had mates, but more than one at a time, if we so chose. We were more like animals, than you humans are. We attempted to spread our seed, as widely as possible. I understand you would think that poor, but it was my way of life. I had one woman. She was the first I mated with, and I kept going back to her, even after mating with others. Women and men did not live together on my world. Men were not as respected as women were. We held no positions of power. We worked and we contributed, but the women were celebrated. It was that way because three fourths of those born on my world were female. It was that way so that men could mate with multiple women.”
“You had children?”
“Many,” Key said. “But I did not see them. Their mothers raised them. It is not our way. Still, they are gone now, and it brings me pain.”
“I’m sorry,” Becca said.
“I think I will sleep more,” Key said, and the girl nodded, upset that she had brought their conversation to a halt. Without thinking, she bent down and kissed Key on the cheek. His eyes were closed and they didn’t open. Becca pulled herself back, mortified. She left the room quickly.
Chapter Nine
Becca didn’t dare take the next day off, and so Key was left alone. She showed him how to send her a text message using software on her laptop, and they kept in touch that way. However, Becca was glad to get home that evening. She changed the alien’s bandages, and then when Gia got home she came she had two pizzas.
“This is amazing,” Key said from the bed, causing the girls, who were sitting together on Becca’s floor, to erupt in laughter. They introduced Key to beer that evening. It was strange for Becca to see how quickly it had simply become normal to have Key in her home.
Alien Message: Alien Romance (Sensual Contact Series Book 1) Page 5