by T. S. Ryder
A swishing sound came from the wall opposite her. Gemma leaped to her feet as the wall opened, sweeping open like the curtains being drawn back into a theater. Her fists raised, recalling the self-defense classes she'd taken, but they dropped just as quickly when she saw who it was.
"Shay!" Gemma rushed forward, throwing her arms around him. She buried her face into his shoulder, inhaling his smoky scent. If Shay was here, it couldn't be so bad. "I think I'm having some sort of bizarre stress dream."
Thick, muscular arms wrapped around her, pulling her closer. "You're not dreaming, Gemma."
He grasped her shoulders and pushed her back a step. His warm, dark eyes bored into hers and a shiver ran down her spine.
"What do you mean, I'm not dreaming?"
Shay's fingers traced her jaw. She leaned into his touch, sighing as she did so. His skin was always so warm, she loved it.
"I regrettably lied to you. I'm not from Europe, as I told you. In fact, I'm not human."
Gemma's first instinct was to laugh at him, but it got choked in her throat when she saw the serious look in his eye. Shay never joked. Her heart beat faster once more and she pulled away from him, shaking her head. This had to be a dream. There was no way what he was saying could be true, so she must be having one bizarre stress dream.
"Gemma?"
"If you're not human, what are you?" Her hands trembled. She tried to laugh, because if this was real, she didn't know what she would do.
"I'm a member of a species known as Stlozyn, from the planet Bronæl."
"Really?" Had he gone insane, or was this a continuation of the Gemma Watson curse, where she only picked losers? Only this time she'd picked a real nutcase. Or she was the nutcase. How am I going to find a new job if I don't have all my mental faculties about me?
Shay watched her, the pucker above his left eye giving away just how worried he was. "I should have told you before—"
"So if you're an… not human…" Gemma couldn't say the word 'alien'. "What are you on Earth for?"
"I think you should sit down."
"Well, I think that you should tell me what's going on. Right now." Her stomach was churning by this time. At any minute she was going to completely lose it. The stress was really getting to her.
"There's a disease causing infertility among my people. It infects our genetic material." He shook his head, sighing. "You wouldn't understand all the details. Suffice it to say, I am a scientist, and I believe that human DNA holds the key to our cure."
Gemma blinked at him. Nausea started swirling in her stomach and she had to swallow back bile. The floor beneath her feet felt too real, and when he put his hand on her arm, the weight of it was too detailed, too warm, to exist in a dream. But what he was saying couldn’t be possible. It just couldn't. Sure, she had always believed that aliens existed. It just made sense that somewhere in the vast expanses of the universe other life forms existed.
But she had never believed that they would be six feet tall, with muscles that bulged and roped beneath smooth, warm skin, or have a brilliant smile that flashed pearly-white teeth. If anybody had told her that one day she was going to be pregnant with an alien baby, she'd have laughed at them. Even now she felt like laughing–hysterically, but still laughing.
"Okay," Gemma said, stepping back as she shuddered. "So this is a prank, right? You had somebody come in and change up my apartment so you could what? Is this for YouTube? Where's the camera?"
Shay ran a hand over his face.
"This isn't funny!" Gemma put her hands on her wide hips and tossed her auburn hair over her shoulder, trying to hide how much she was shivering. "I like pranks as well as the next girl, but you, what, drugged me so that I wouldn't know I was being moved? I don't care. Get out of here before I call the cops!"
Shay was a goner. Just like her cheating ex-husband, his ass was dropped. She wasn't about to stick around with a man who wanted her to think she was crazy.
Shay took a step back, holding up his hands. "Gemma, everything I have told you is the truth. I'm not human. We're not on Earth."
"Bullshit."
Maybe she was overreacting a smidgen to his prank. Maybe it wasn't actually that bad. Shay was patient and kind, and he didn't mind that her thighs rubbed together or that she had wobbly bits under her arms. She dropped her hands and took a deep breath.
"Okay, I'm just going to give you one more chance to come clean, because up until now you've been a perfect boyfriend. Where am I?"
"I thought you wouldn't believe me. I had hoped to wait, but…" He began unbuttoning his shirt.
Gemma crossed the space between them and jabbed him hard in the chest. "Hold it right there, buster. I don't care how sexy you are, you don't get to try to make me think you're an alien that abducted me and then seduce me. No way, no how."
"I'm not—"
She narrowed her eyes. It was easier not to be afraid if she was furious with him. "I want to go home right now. Understand?"
"You once asked me about this," Shay interrupted, touching the fire-red tattoo of a dragon that was over his heart. "I told you that I got it to commemorate my grandfather. The truth is that it is an implant that produces a shimmering cloak to hide my true appearance. For my research, it was necessary to blend in."
He pressed his fingers to either side of the tattoo. Gemma stared, her heart in her throat. She still didn’t want to believe, but was unable to find another explanation as the tattoo actually detached itself from Shay's skin. His form blurred for a moment, glowing red, before focusing again. Gemma gasped.
He was still six feet tall with rippling muscles bending his arms and neck. He still had the same lips, nose and ears, the same dark hair curled against his skull. But his skin had changed. No longer smooth and taut, it was a glittering emerald-green, the light catching off of hundreds of tiny scales and reflecting it back to Gemma. So utterly not human.
Worse yet were his eyes. They were red as blood, staring out at her from that alien face.
Gemma stepped back, wanting to scream but unable to pull in a breath to do so. Her head spun. She tried to think of something else to say, some explanation for this, but couldn't. Her legs gave out and she collapsed onto the narrow cot again, hands clutching the blanket.
Shay stepped forward but stopped when she flinched. "I wanted to tell you the truth about myself from the moment I met you, Gemma. It was a very strange emotional response. Please understand that I hated to lie to you. But things have changed. I did not think that our species could procreate but we can… when I told you that I loved you, I was telling the truth."
Gemma pressed a hand to her stomach. She was pregnant. With an alien's baby. She wanted to vomit, but her body wasn't responding to any of this. She couldn't feel herself sitting on the cot. It was like she was drifting in an endless sea, tossed by waves that bruised her but that she couldn't actually feel.
"Gemma?"
"I want to go home."
"I know. I know, and I'm sorry that you can't. Not right now, at least. There are too many unknowns. But I swear I will take care of you and the baby. I will make sure you both are okay."
A shiver ran down her spine. "Why wouldn't we be okay?"
Shay's gaze dropped. "We are two separate species. Subspecies at least. There are always dangers associated with hybrid offspring. We have the same ancestry, but with the hundreds of years and genetic modification that has separated Stlozyn and humans, there are risks."
"What sort of risks?"
"The greatest is that the baby won't be viable. But I will not let this end badly. I swear to you. Even if we have to do genetic surgery. I am highly intelligent, and I command this ship."
"This ship." Gemma let out a high-pitched, hysterical giggle. "We're not on Earth anymore."
Shay winced and shook his head.
Gemma's voice lowered to a whisper. "You kidnapped me."
Another wince. "I wasn't thinking clearly. I know I should have told you before, but I was just…"
He trailed off, apparently recognizing that there was nothing he could say to make this better.
Gemma stared at him, not speaking. Her mind raced around in circles, unable to land on anything that felt solid. She wanted to tell him to get out, wanted to tell him to hold her, wanted to scream and wanted to cry. Wanted to laugh, to not believe. Eventually, she did the only thing she could. She turned her back on Shay and lay down on the bed, pulling her blanket over her head.
She squeezed her eyes shut tight and pretended that she was still sleeping, and this was nothing more than a dream.
Chapter Two
Shay held his hands behind his back, his chin on his chest as his lungs filled with smoke. It had been months since he had been able to do a proper cleanse, and it felt good to let the fires in his belly burn hot, to let steam and smoke exhale from under his scales, burning away the pollutants that had accumulated in his system during his time on Earth.
His thoughts turned to Gemma–he had been wrong to take her like he had. He knew that now. Revealing his true identity first would have been the right course of action. He had just been so excited to know that she carried his child, he'd lost his head.
It was a disturbing show of emotion. His grandfather had always told him that his tendency for emotion was his greatest stumbling block. He'd had to fight for his position, showing that he could be emotional and logical both. It hadn't been easy, but here he was, Science Alpha of a research vessel.
He had been planning on telling Gemma his true name soon. But her reaction to his true form was disturbing–now he wasn't sure she would even want to stay with him. He couldn't share his true name, that deep part of himself, with someone who wasn't going to stay with him for the rest of his life. Gemma wouldn't understand the importance of his true name yet, anyway.
Silly superstition, he thought, scoffing at his own desire to share his true name with another person. For having a true name at all. But even if it was a silly superstition with no basis in science, it was important to him.
Shay blew out a deep breath, exhaling the last of the smoke from his chest. Somehow he would make this up to Gemma. He had to.
When he stepped from the cleansing room, he saw somebody waiting for him. Wynon, the dragoness the Science Board appointed as his second on his ship. She carried an info link and averted her eyes while he pulled on the scarlet robes that indicated his rank. She wore green, designating her as a Science Chief. The color clashed horribly with her aqua scales.
Human shyness when it came to nudity had been one of the things that had surprised Shay the most. Among Stlozyn, if one didn't want to look at another's naked body, they merely adverted their eyes. It wasn't difficult.
"Science Alpha."
She bowed towards him, holding out the info link.
Science Alpha. Shay smiled at the title. He had worked long and hard to earn that rank, to be given his own research ship. The only way he could improve his rank now was to sit on the Science Board itself–something he fully intended to do. He was determined to be the youngest dragon to ever be appointed to that prestigious position.
"These are the results of my fertility tests?"
"And the DNA scans of the fetus in the human."
"Gemma," Shay growled lightly. "Her name is Gemma, and you will refer to her as such."
Wynon bowed her head. Shay took the info link and set the small database against his wrist, snapping it into place before withdrawing the transference spike from its place. He set the spike against the base of his skull, wincing as it pierced through flesh and connected with his neurological systems.
A flood of information poured into his mind and he closed his eyes, letting it all settle before he tried to make sense of it. When the information was properly organized, the fires in Shay's stomach leaped higher.
Two things were very clear. One, he should not be able to father children. His own bout with the disease that plagued his people had made his genetic material too weak. Second, the child that Gemma carried was his. It was undeniable.
His heart lightened, swelling with joy. He had always wanted to have a child, and now the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on would give him one. The scans indicated the baby was perfectly healthy, in the third month of development. Gemma also wasn't suffering any unexpected health effects. The weight of worry left him. They were both healthy.
He removed the info link, wincing as it came out. Infolinks were the most efficient way to upload large amounts of information directly to the brain, but the little spike grazed nerve endings that made most unaccustomed users faint. Shay was proud to say he had never experienced such an embarrassing show of weakness, although the first time he'd used an infolink, it had driven him to his knees.
"Have the information relayed back to Bronæl," he ordered Wynon, "along with the rest of my research from Earth."
She saluted him and spun on her heel, marching away. Shay hurried to Gemma's room. As soon as she had woken, he’d had her moved to a more comfortable location, no longer needing to monitor her condition in the medical bay. He knocked on the door, but there was no answer.
"Gemma, it is me. Shay."
"Go away."
Shay's eyes widened slightly and he drew back a step, hurt by her dismissal. "Gemma—"
"I want to be alone right now."
Shay's brow furrowed. "I will be back later, then."
There was no response.
It was more than likely that she was still very upset with him. And it was no wonder, either. After all, as she had said herself, he had abducted her. The ways of Stlozyn were very different to those of humans.
Mental acuity was more highly praised than physical prowess among his people, but it was still common practice for higher ranking individuals to simply bring their mates to their own homes when a child was conceived, and he had acted in that manner, not thinking about the effects it would have on her.
He understood why Gemma would not be happy with him for his actions. After all, she’d only just found out he wasn't human, and certainly didn't know anything of their customs. He had acted impulsively, and that had harmed their relationship. He would have to give her time to come to terms with all of this and regain her trust.
"If you need me, just call and I'll get the message."
No answer.
Shay turned on his heel and headed towards his command deck, hands in his pockets. He only hoped that it wouldn't take too long to win her back–even this short time separated from her felt like an eternity.
When Shay reached the command deck, all of the crew snapped to attention until he told them to return to their duties. A few of the higher-ranking individuals congratulated him on his coming child, and Shay allowed himself to beam as he thanked them. A child. This was happy news indeed.
Wynon was the only one who wasn't smiling as Shay ordered a return to their home world. She stepped up beside him as they activated the tesseract, taking them into string space. This dimension allowed them to travel at speeds billions of times faster than light while not experiencing the temporal distortion that had plagued early faster-than-light missions.
"Sir, may I speak with you in private?" Wynon asked, under her breath.
Shay nodded to her and lead the way to his ready room. Inside was a large meeting table, but neither Stlozyn sat at it. A heavy frown was on the dragoness' face, and she did not look at her Alpha.
"What was it you wanted to say, Science Chief?"
He really did need to find a way to speak with Gemma. Even though she didn't want to see him at the moment, he needed to let her know what to expect when they reached Bronæl. Children were highly celebrated, especially these days when the disease was making conception harder and harder to achieve. She would be greatly honored when they arrived, and it might be overwhelming for his little human. She was calm and confident, but easily drained by crowds.
"Sir, this child carried by the hum–Gemma may indicate a cure for the fertility plaguing our people.
"
Shay nodded, his eyes shining. "I did tell the Science Board that humans were the key to fixing our fertility problems. It will take some further synthesis and testing, but I believe their DNA will provide a cure for this plague."
"That is not what I mean."
Shay's eyes narrowed. Wynon was not his choice of Science Chief. He would have preferred one of his friends from the University, but the Science Board always appointed the Science Chief to research vessels. She was respectful, as was her place, but it was clear that she still held to the antiquated and disproven belief that dragonesses were less emotional and more intelligent than dragons.
It rankled him. What did he have to do to prove that emotion and intelligence could exist in the same space? Wasn't his research proof of his own mental acuity?
Shay folded his arms. "What do you mean, then?"
"If we could extract physical DNA from the fetus—"
"No." Shay shook his head at once. "It would be too risky, both for the child and Gemma."
Wynon folded her arms, her expression hardening. "You are not thinking about our people, Alpha. What is the life of one fetus or human compared to saving our species from extinction? With the infertility rates this disease is creating, we will die out in only a handful of generations. There are many human dragonesses—"
"Women. Human females are called women."
"Women, then." The dragoness didn't say the word quite right, as though she couldn't get her tongue around it. "There are many women on Earth. If those females take Stlozyn seed the way this one has, then there will be plenty of opportunities to create more children, both for you and many other dragons."
"Your point?"
Wynon's eyes narrowed. "The DNA extraction from this fetus may be able to reverse the disease's effects on you, so you can have a dragoness for a mate."
Shay glared at his second coldly. "For your sake, I will ignore what you have just said. But if you ever insinuate that my child and my human aren't good enough for protection against unethical science practices, I will have your wings. Understood?"