by Ruby Scott
What are you doing? A voice shouted in her head. You’re on an alien ship! Find out what the fuck is going on!
She shook her head roughly and took a step away from him, pulling her hand back and slipping it into her jacket pocket. Amanda thought she read confusion in the alien’s face, and another pang of regret lanced her heart—to her dismay. This can’t be happening, she thought angrily. He’s using some kind of manipulative love gas or something—maybe I hit my head. Brain damage, that’s it!
“Do I have brain damage?” she heard herself say aloud. Her voice was softer than she meant it to be, but it still seemed to startle him.
He was gazing intently at her with his luminous eyes as he spoke. “No,” he said slowly. “You didn’t strike your head—just now, or on the hilltop. You’re not hallucinating, either; you didn’t drink enough.”
Amanda felt herself nod, but she was too busy studying the fullness of his lips to feel her shock register for more than a second. “How did you know I was drinking?”
“Your flask,” he answered, and held the item in question out to her with one large hand—pulled from nowhere, as far as Amanda could see. He wore black pants that clung to his muscular thighs, but they didn’t have any pockets or folds. She felt a stir of fear (how did he do that?) but she plucked the flask from his fingers and examined it between her hands.
“I thought it fell from my pocket.” Her tone reflected the awe she felt; it was perfectly clean, not a scratch or a dent on it. How had he retrieved it from the ground?
“It did,” the alien said, and he sounded amused. “But it got caught in my ship’s beam. Don’t you know how abductions work?”
Amanda raised her eyes sharply, ready to throw an attitude back, but the curve of his golden-brown cheeks told her he was joking. “I’m a little rusty on the science,” she said dryly, and the laugh that bubbled from his lips warmed her like a hot drink on a freezing day.
He gave her a real smile after he stopped laughing. “You’ll have to get up to speed, you know,” he said. “If you’re going to be coming.”
She felt her head bob again, then she froze. Wait, what?
But he was already moving away from here, stepping over to the wall on the opposite side of the door. He walked over the glass of the cockpit in his bare feet and tapped a spot on the wall seemingly at random; a second later, a ten-by-ten space blinked and lightened until it resembled a glossy classroom whiteboard.
“Coming where?” Amanda asked nervously, fingering the flask in her right pocket. It was far from the last question she wanted to ask—who are you? was probably at the top. But right now, moving through space in a huge ship at an unknown speed, a destination seemed like a good thing to have in mind.
The alien turned his handsome face toward Amanda and frowned, and the constellations in his eyes swirled a little faster. “Oh, I’m sorry,” he said, with more than a little anxiety lacing his tone. “You must think I’m terribly rude. I’m Lee, Amanda; my job is mainly research and protection of human artifacts around this star system and a handful of others, for the moment. I know it’s not as exciting as what my brother does—“
His words cut off when he realized how confused Amanda was. “She didn’t tell you about me or the Star System League, did she?”
Amanda shook her head numbly, trying to search the recesses of her mind for any mention of aliens her sister might have made over the past few years. “No, she never mentioned anything about…interplanetary travel.”
“What?” he exclaimed, and his disbelief was almost comical. “She didn’t prep you for my arrival?”
“She didn’t prep me for anything,” Amanda said, feeling bewildered. “She didn’t even explicitly tell me to go to that hill. Just…” she struggled to remember her sister’s words. “…to go looking, but not for something specific. We both love stars, so I guess the hill was sort of inspired by her.”
Lee tittered and shook his head. “What did she say to you, then? What did she tell you when she directed you to high ground? Just that you’d find a surprise?”
Something stirred in her mind, and she smiled. “That I’d find the truth,” Amanda said softly. “If I opened myself up to the stars.” She laughed, and Lee didn’t seem to understand why. “You don’t get the X-Files out here?”
He smiled, and Amanda felt giddy being the cause. “I’m familiar with Scully and Mulder, I’m just annoyed that you haven’t been debriefed. I must seem terribly rude, and I’m afraid I’m going to have to lay a lot of information on you in a short amount of time.” His face knotted together in apprehension, and Amanda felt guilty. Don’t feel guilty, she chided herself. This isn’t your fault.
“This isn’t your fault,” Lee assured her then, echoing her thoughts when he saw the guilt written in her features. “I’ve met Liz; I’m sure she thought she was sparing you anxiety.”
“That sounds like her,” Amanda admitted. “You’ve met my sister?”
“My brother was her partner for two years,” Lee explained, and colorful map of a system of galaxies appeared on the whiteboard behind him. “He catalogued parts of many of the same planets we’ve been assigned.”
“Liz traveled space too?” Amanda exclaimed. “How is it that she never told me?”
“She was sworn to secrecy,” Lee said, and something about his tone suggested he didn’t agree with the practice. “She was only to tell you a few months before your orientation, to give you time to think about it and ask questions.” He sighed heavily and tapped the wall again, and a high-backed purple couch descended from the ceiling and landed between them. “Please, sit. We don’t have a lot of time.”
Amanda felt dread start to gather in a hot ball in her stomach, but she walked over to the couch and sat, gazing uneasily at Lee as he sat down. He pressed his long fingers to his brow and sighed again, seemingly gathering his thoughts before he spoke.
“A few years ago, your family was chosen to participate in our research, rescue, and renewal program, along with hundreds of others in each country around the world. Our job is to partner with humans and other species to catalogue as much data as we can while also preserving natural wonders, repairing ecosystems, and cleaning and rehabilitating habitats and wildlife.”
“So you’re like an eco-ranger?” Amanda asked.
Lee laughed. “You could put it that way. Anyway, two years is the general length of service. It can be dangerous, and it can be difficult, but it’s a one in a lifetime opportunity. You’ll be reimbursed a lot of cash, also.”
“But I’d be leaving Earth?”
“For months at a time,” Lee confirmed soberly. “You might be home for up to a month at a time, but you’ll never be gone less than two weeks. This is a full-time job, but it very well may be the most important one you ever have.”
Amanda laughed at the grim statement. “What, are we going to save the universe from the brink of implosion?”
Lee blinked slowly. “Liz and Keith once saved an entire planet from being destroyed by its own radiation. They’ve rescued a few cornerstone species on a few different planet. If Liz hadn’t walked away at the end of her term, she could have been the head of her own Special Force team.”
Amanda’s mouth fell open. “My sister?” Then something Lee said clicked. “Wait, end of her term? You can serve more than two years?”
Lee looked surprised. “Oh, yes; I’ve known several humans who never returned to Earth for various reasons. Some settled on other planets. I can sympathize. In any case, you can renew your term at any time if you feel it’s a good fit.”
Amanda’s mind was racing with the possibilities. Unless she was really hallucinating, what Lee was saying was true: she was being given an opportunity to explore the galaxy, and even get paid for it. She could travel and find herself in a way that almost no other human would get to do in her age; who knew what sort of place she might find out she belonged?
“So we’re eco-explorers,” Amanda said. “And I get paid for this? Where do
I stay?”
“We have bases around the universe,” Lee explained, and he gestured toward the part of the wall that was still a glossy whiteboard. The stars in his eyes stilled, and the board zoomed in on a grid and enhanced itself, showing a large green dome a chocolate-brown planet that appeared to be called Arzemiya. “This one has twenty luxury cabins on each of its six levels.” The picture on the whiteboard changed to show what looked suspiciously like an expensive hotel room on earth: low, flat beds in muted greens and blues with a spacious bathroom sporting a sunken tub and some sort of television screen in front of a very round toilet.
“All of our accommodations will be generally familiar to you,” Lee explained as Amanda watched the screen cycle through photos of the inside of the dome. “They resemble what are normally called resorts on Earth. Comfortable rooms, entertainment sectors, lounges, meals en suite, if you prefer. But you’ll see other humans, as well as species from other planets, like mine.”
Amanda tore her eyes away from the screen and was startled to find that lee was already looking at her expectantly. “What planet are you from?”
“Arzemiya,” Lee said. “But I’ve lived off-world most of my life. I’ll be introducing you to my council there. Please understand,” he begged when he saw the panicked look on her face, “your family was chosen fifty years ago, when this program was begun; your name has been on a list since birth. You were meant to have much more time to process this, and I’m very sorry you don’t have it. I’ve been studying human culture my whole life, so even though my species might find some of your tendencies to form attachments odd or worth dismissing, I don’t. I understand. Please believe that.” His exasperated tone of voice pierced Amanda’s heart, and she found his concern endearing and heartbreaking at the same time. She decided several things at once, and the anxiety in her stomach lightened.
“It’s okay, Lee,” she said calmly. “I’m still going to do it.”
His mouth dropped open, but Lee recovered himself quickly. “You are? I mean, that’s excellent! Thank you!” His relief was painfully apparent, and Amanda wanted to laugh. “Thank you so much. Liz said you’d be excited, and that you’d always been adaptable.”
“I have,” she admitted. “I was always the one to roll with the punches when we changed schools. I don’t know if you’re aware, but I’m pretty used to moving around every few years.”
Lee dipped his head bashfully. “I know a lot about you, Amanda. Your sister should have been the one to tell you this, but I know…quite a bit about you. I was given a huge dossier on your life, and…” he cleared his throat, and the embarrassment on his features was as clear as day. The stars in his incredible eyes were zooming around the blackness of his sockets, and Amanda thought they must respond to his heart rate. He took a deep breath and started to speak again.
“Like I said, I’ve lived off-world most of my life, but I still know my home planet. I go back every few years, I’ve taken years worth of video tours, read all the texts available, taken courses…what I mean to say is, I know very few other things as well as I know Arzemiya…but you’re definitely one of them.” He raised his head and met her gaze, and current of lust flooded her body so quickly that a soft gasp was torn from her lips.
That’s why he’s so comfortable with me, she realized. He knows me already. He’s been following along.
“I’m sorry if that makes you uncomfortable,” Lee said nervously. “But it’s true. My people don’t really respect privacy as such, and they handed it to me without thinking. I admit that even after I found out about the concept of journals and diaries and spying on Earth, I still read it. I’m ashamed, but I wanted to know everything about you that I could, because I believed it would help foster a bond with you, and I could find the same happiness Keith found with Liz, but avoid his mistakes.”
“Mistakes?” Amanda asked, wrinkling her brow.
Lee looked startled, then nodded his head. “Right, you don’t know the truth about Keith. His mistake was trying to rush her into permanently staying off world. He said later he should have known about her fear of commitment. But it wasn’t until much later that I realized how much more you value your privacy over any bond I might try to make.”
Amanda stared at him, trying to formulate a response from the whirlwind of emotion in her head. “I…I’m not mad,” she said finally. “Really,” she added to the look of surprise on his handsome face. “I understand we have cultural differences. And my sister is right, I take things in stride better than most people I know. So I’m not mad. I just need to…take my mind off this right now. Maybe think about something else for a while.” She dropped her eyes after Lee nodded sympathetically.
A few moments later, she looked up to see that Lee was still meeting her gaze, and she didn’t know how, but she felt like this was the time to make clear her other decision. If he knew all about her, then he must already know what she was going to bring up.
“Lee,” she said cautiously. “Would you do me a favor?” She unzipped her hoodie, and noted with satisfaction that his eyes flickered down to the cleavage pressing against her royal blue tank top.
Lee smiled hesitantly as he watched her stand and pull the edges of her shirt up and over her head. “What’s…what can I do for you, Amanda?” He was trying and failing to keep his gaze level with hers as she unhooked her bra and let her enormous breasts spill free from her red bra.
“I’m sure you know, I’ve never had sex before,” she said conversationally. Lee’s mouth dropped open slightly as she pushed her jeans over her wide hips, then tugged her red panties down over the thickness of her thighs. “And since I’m probably not going to be around that many humans…” she bit her lip and shrugged, watching the slow smile on Lee’s face get wider by the second.
“You want me to…stamp your V-Card, I think I should say?” Lee asked, and as he rose, he pushed his silky black pants over his muscled hips. “I would be honored. I’m sure you noticed me noticing you, and I’m not going to pretend I haven’t developed a certain…fondness for you.”
Amanda’s eyes widened as his cock—long and thick and already dripping with a silvery precum—sprang from the waistband of his pants.
The smile on his face was satisfied and eager. Lee gripped the base of his thick cock with one hand and dragged his starlit gaze up and down Amanda’s curvy body, lingering on the black curls covering her vulva a little longer than the rest of her body. He licked his lips, and the stars in his eyes were swirling faster than she’d seen them move all night. “Do you want to get on the couch? We don’t have a lot of time. We can use a bed next time—if you want there to be a next time!” His voice was chock full of anxiety. “But there’s no bed in here. Like I said, we can use the couch. Then we can change, there’s a—“
Amanda moved forward and threw her arms around his neck, pulling him down to press her lips against the fullness of his. He moaned in surprise, then slipped his arms around her waist and pushed her on the couch, falling on top of her as he tangled his tongue with hers. He tasted curiously smoky, as though his blood were made of flame instead of liquid—and it might have been so, based on the urgency of his actions.
Amanda had hardly spread her thighs by the time he gripped her waist and pressed his slick, round head against the moist opening of her pussy. She shivered and closed her eyes as he pressed his hips forward, groaning in pleasure as her walls swallowed up his meaty shaft.
“God,” she breathed, arching her back and throwing her breasts forward as he began to plunge his member between her thick thighs. He planted a trail of hot, wet kisses from her neck to her breasts, stopping to suck her nipple into his mouth and roll his tongue around its point until it grew erect, and she cried out sharply in ecstasy. Amanda moaned deliriously as his long cock reached places only her fingers had gone before, stretching and filling her deliciously.
“Amanda,” Lee moaned, throwing his gorgeous head back as his stroke increased in speed. He was pulling on her black curls with
one hand, and when he looked down at her, she could swear he wore a look of complete devotion. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”
He was thrusting harder, his breath becoming ragged and quick as waves of pleasure enveloped their writhing bodies. The sounds of his body slapping against hers was all she could hear under their ecstatic moans. The head of his cock was brushing against Amanda’s g-spot, and as he thrust his hips passionately to match her wild bucking, her pleasure started to build toward a peak.
“Lee, God, you’re amazing!” Amanda moaned. He kissed her passionately, massaging her tongue as he grunted into her mouth. She twisted his hair between her fingers as he beat her body against the soft couch, her hand sliding across the sweat beading on his glowing skin. His warm hands slipped under her body and gripped the flesh of her thick, soft ass, and Amanda screamed with pleasure as he pumped his hips against hers, holding her body in place while he drove his thick cock into her pussy again and again.
“I’m coming!” he moaned into her neck, and Amanda thought, already? But then he started to rocket between her legs, grinding his weight against her sensitive, fleshy clit as she slammed his cock deep inside her. He walls tightened around his shaft, and she dug her nails into his back, gripping his hips with her thighs as he pounded her pussy and neared his release.
When he came, Lee gripped her soft waist with both hands and buried his cock as far into Amanda’s thrashing body as he could go, shouting his pleasure to the stars as his essence exploded inside her. Amanda herself was screaming as her pussy twitched around his throbbing cock, rubbing her swollen clit with one finger to intensify her pleasure. They rocked their hips against one another a few more times, moaning weakly and kissing their sore lips gently as their lust receded.
“Wow,” Amanda said as he stilled inside her. “That was…”
“Wow,” Lee replied, and he smiled softly as he gazed down her, smoothing her curls away from her face. “You’re just…wow.”