Romancing the Stars: 8 Short Stories of Galactic Romance and Adventure

by Sabine Priestley

  A wicked grin spread across her features. “I thought not.” She slid a fingertip across his chest-plate, which dematerialized again on its own accord.

  “Gah, Miaxa!” Bazin stepped away from her, nearly tripping over his injured leg.

  It was all he could do not to pull her to him. Shaking from the effort, his core clearly needed to join with hers in order to finally feel whole again. The sound of her laughter sang through his systems. It had been so long. He couldn’t believe she was standing right here. All this time, he didn’t know if she was even still alive.

  Bazin caught a glimpse of Alexander Maddox’s gaping mouth and quickly rematerialized his carbide plates. Said human’s mouth opened and closed. A sound came out, but it was unintelligible. Miaxa noticed the noise.

  “This—is a human?” She sounded less than impressed, but she did switch to the human’s language.

  “Yes,” Bazin said, offended for his human friend, even if the organic didn’t know she was being offensive. “This is Alexander Maddox. Didn’t you get the file?” He’d just uploaded everything about their human allies during the brief interface.

  “Yes, yes,” she waved a hand dismissively. “It’s just that I thought they were bigger.”

  She approached the human, and Alex blanched under her gaze. To the organic’s credit, he stood his ground.

  “Hello Alexander Maddox,” she said to the human. “I’m Miaxa. I’m Bazin’s core-mate.”

  “You can just call me Alex,” the human stated, his stance becoming more relaxed.

  “Don’t crowd him,” Bazin grumbled.

  “Such a bundle of good cheer,” Miaxa remarked. Alex stifled a chuckle. Bazin crossed his arms.

  “I like the language,” she continued absently. “I like the way it sounds in my vocalizers.” She looked at Bazin. “And I really miss this armor.” She moved to touch him again.

  Wide arcs of electricity sparked between them, again, both of their chests glowing now, even though they weren’t that close. Bazin put a little more distance between them.

  “Wow,” she exclaimed in wonderment. “It’s inevitable.”

  As fascinated as he was by the reaction of their cores, he really wanted to get Maddox’s gaping jaw out of there so that they could find someplace private. They needed synchronization as much as the human needed air, but having an audience wasn’t acceptable, especially an organic one. He was on the verge of losing control. Their cores were going to unite, whenever, however, whether they could control them or not.

  Bazin took a few more steps back for good measure. “We should rendezvous with the others.” They were going to be as surprised as he was.

  “There isn’t enough energy left to sustain the drives,” Miaxa said, pointing to the ship.

  Bazin nodded. He figured as much. That was probably why it had come in as hot as it did. He kept waiting for the others to disembark, but no one else seemed brave enough to venture out onto the organic planet. Their history with organics wasn’t very good, after all.

  “Wait. We can’t just leave that giant-ass ship in the middle of the desert,” Alex piped up from behind them.

  Miaxa pressed a button on her arm. The entire ship pixelated to blend in with the desert and sky, the same way they manipulated their frames to look human.

  “Wow. Their ship doesn’t do that,” Alex pointed at Bazin.

  “The Illusion.” Bazin blew his vents, amazed. He didn’t recognize it at first. Now, there was no mistaking it. “You can’t be the only one on this ship.”

  Miaxa bowed her head, and Bazin could feel conflict through their bond, followed by a sense of loss and a void he couldn’t quite place.

  “Zek let you take his ship? Alone?”

  “We didn’t have a choice,” she said softly.

  Silence lingered between them.

  Alex disappeared from their periphery and the pickup truck they were in earlier soon appeared. The engine sputtered, but it was still running despite the recent abuse. The human rolled down the window from the driver’s seat. “We have to leave sometime.”

  Miaxa stepped away from the truck, lip-plate curled. “I am not getting in that with an organic.”

  Bazin crossed his arms, once again offended for his human friend, but also understanding her reservations. “Neither one of us has the energy to materialize one for ourselves, so it’s this or we walk.”

  “Speak for yourself.” She took a few steps back before projecting a four-wheeled enclosed vehicle around her body.

  Chapter 2

  Alex could not believe what he had just seen. Bazin walked to the passenger side of the truck, getting in as if this new alien hadn’t just shaped a functioning car around herself. “She is unable to transport me,” the extraterrestrial said.

  Alex didn’t know how to respond. He drove and she followed and he still couldn’t find his voice. The car was nondescript, a little foreign, until they reached the highway. Once on it, several SUVs passed, and the ambiguous car pixelated into a light blue Jeep Liberty, now fully blending in as a true Earth vehicle.

  Alex watched, through the rearview mirror, the light blue Jeep following them at a distance, he noted. Finally, he mumbled, “Can you do that?”

  “Do what?” Bazin said.

  “She just divined an actual working SUV around her body, and you don’t know what I’m talking about?” Alex knew these aliens could control vehicles, mechanical workings, computers, and the like, but this was a whole new ballgame.

  Bazin looked in the rearview mirror too. “She didn’t divine it, as you say. She materialized it through pair production, as we do with everything involving our frames.”

  Even weapons, apparently, but one thing at a time here. Alex could feel his nerves fray. “Bazin, seriously, I’ve known you for how long? This is a shock.”

  The grey-sheened alien continued to stare out the rearview mirror. “Yes, I can do that. It takes a lot of energy, and I’m not synchronized enough to accomplish it.”

  Alex had no idea what that meant, but Bazin clammed up. He gave the extraterrestrial a sidelong glance, noticing that pensive look again, remembering a conversation they’d had awhile back.

  “So, is this what you’ve been waiting for?” Alex hedged.

  “Yes,” Bazin clipped, once again providing no other information.

  “—And her name is Miaxa?”

  “That is her designation, yes.”

  “Wow, I didn’t know you guys had females.”

  The alien made a sound akin to a snort.

  “Okay, come on. I know that sound. Obviously I’ve got it all wrong and you’re too much of an ass to explain it to my inferior intelligence.”

  Bazin chuckled. “I never said your intelligence was inferior.”

  “No, just that my entire species is inferior,” Alex scoffed.

  Bazin had never actually said that either, but Alex was always under that impression.

  “Is there a loose wire in your head?” Bazin asked, not exactly rebuffing Alex’s statement.

  Alex simply kept driving. Give you the silent treatment for once.

  “We are the same species, as you humans would say, but there is a difference between us. As far as male and female, she isn’t any more female than I am male.”

  “What? You’re not male?”

  Silence.

  Alex was thoroughly confused. So, this Miaxa was Beryllian, but not considered female, according to Bazin, yet she was called a ‘she,’ even by him, and was somehow different than him. Furthermore, Bazin was saying he wasn’t really a ‘he’ to begin with?

  “Is she your wife?” Alex asked a new question. He couldn’t wrap his head around the other stuff.

  “No,” Bazin stated without any further explanation.

  Alex let out a sigh of exasperation. Well, Bazin was being as vague as ever.

  More silence. “What is her relationship to you again?” Alex asked.

  “She is my bonded. We are coremates.” Bazin sounded irr
itated, but Alex wanted at least some answer. This alien had been living in his barn for years and he didn’t even know Bazin had a wife, that he could have a wife.

  “Oh, okay, so—she’s your wife.”

  “Is there an echo in here? No, Alex, she is not my wife.”

  “Is she not your wife because she isn’t female, or—?”

  “She isn’t female in the human sense, no different from me except that she could bring life. She is not my wife, she is my coremate.”

  Holy shit. Bring life, as in create it? This was huge, bigger than huge. It was the biggest breakthrough he’d had with his alien resident. This could change everything.

  “Um, Baze, if she can create life, then that means she’s female.”

  “She can’t create life. Others like her can, if they still exist.” There was a flash of something Alex couldn’t quite place. It might have been sadness or regret, guilt, maybe all three. “And they aren’t female.” Bazin shifted in his seat. “If you must insist she’s my wife, then you can say she’s uxorial, yes.”

  Alex was going to have to look that up. “Do you love her?” Were Beryllians capable of love?

  Bazin didn’t answer. Maybe it was a stupid question. Maybe too personal. It seemed that the more personal things got, the more silent the extraterrestrial was.

  Alex would find a more willing mechanoid to ask what all of this meant. He had definitely gotten as far as Bazin was willing to go with it. Andler, the alien doctor, always seemed willing to talk. He hadn’t spoken with that one much, but Andler was definitely approachable.

  Once again, he thought about the aliens’ choice of Bazin as the Beryllian Liaison. Perhaps it was purposeful. With Bazin being the most standoffish, he was also the one least likely to divulge information. Alex was under the impression that Kordan was amused with the situation. What he couldn’t tell was if the joke was on the humans or Bazin.

  Alex noticed a faint light in his periphery and quickly glanced at it. Bazin’s chest was glowing, especially the part directly over the alien’s core. “You’re not about to spontaneously combust, are you?”

  Bazin seemed flustered, reaching over to crank up the AC to maximum.

  They continued on in silence. Alex checked the rearview mirror several times while Bazin kept leaning forward, close to the air vents. Something that sounded like fans was whirring from underneath his arms.

  Alex couldn’t stop glancing over at the strange behavior. For as long as he’d known the alien, there was so much he didn’t know at all.

  “So, those carbide plates aren’t just to contain your core, are they?” Alex noticed liquid leaking from Bazin’s leg. So, there were weak spots in the armor, and this Miaxa knew about them. Bazin didn’t say anything, Alex continued, “And, wow, I thought you didn’t like humans. Is this an issue all Beryllians have?”

  The alien cleared his vents. “Beryllians have not had much luck with organics. Her prejudice is hardly unjustified.”

  “Is that why you have weapons? Because of hostile organics?”

  “Partly.”

  It wasn’t that Bazin didn’t want to explain things. Alex was the only human he actually trusted. He was just distracted at the moment. Knowing what ‘wife’ meant to a human, Miaxa was not his wife. She was much more than that. They would not part in death, but join in it. Their bond was forever.

  The mission to find a habitable planet had taken longer than expected. For the most part, it was a complete bust. Crash-landing on an organic world was an embarrassment. Bazin feared he would never be reunited with his coremate, but here she was.

  He watched the Jeep behind them. Was it really her? It looked too much like an Earth vehicle. The feeling in his chest should have been all he needed, but he wasn’t sure if he could trust his core, and he certainly wasn’t believing his optics. He reached out to her through their bond.

  [Yes, it’s me,] she sent him. [I’m right here; you don’t have to keep checking.]

  Don’t have to keep checking. Right. She had already sent several messages via their bond and through their communications systems. Still, though, it didn’t feel right. He reached out to her again.

  [Baze, if you do that again, I’m going to ram you. You’re making me overheat. Our systems aren’t synced—it’s been too long.]

  Way too long. He wasn’t sure how they’d even survived being separated. Ram him, huh? That sounded like a good prospect. He reached out to her a third time.

  As Miaxa’s current form grew larger in the rearview mirror, Bazin took control of the truck again.

  Alex threw up his hands. “Come on, Bazin!”

  Bazin revved the truck, no intention of speeding up. The arc of lightning that passed from Miaxa just as she connected with the bumper? That was unexpected.

  When Alex started jumping and yelling as if the cab were suddenly full of rattlesnakes, he knew he had been unsuccessful in preventing the electric shock from passing through. When a thrill like he hadn’t felt in a long time coursed through his system, he knew he was unsuccessful in preventing the aftershock, too. The console was covered in arcs of lightning, jolts of electricity shooting through his system in wave after delightful wave.

  The human was obviously not having the same thrill, yelling and cursing, trying to stand up off the seat, only to be electrocuted through those spindly legs as soon as his booted feet hit the floor. Alex tried pulling up on the steering wheel, but judging by the loud crackle of sparks that traveled from his fingers up his arms, Bazin was guessing that didn’t help at all.

  “Owww! Bazin? What the hell…Argh!” Alex screeched.

  It was difficult to tear away from the wonderful sensations, but Bazin managed to speed up the truck, edging a little distance from the Jeep.

  [Quantus, Miaxa,] he sent through their bond. [You’re going to make me electrocute my human.]

  “Pull over. Pull over!” Alex was screaming, so Bazin did. The human couldn’t jump out fast enough, nearly falling with wobbly legs. “Gah, what the fuck was that?”

  Bazin didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t even sure how to explain it even if he wanted to.

  Alex ran around in tiny circles, brushing off his arms as if they were covered with dirt.

  [What is he doing?] Miaxa asked. [That is very strange.]

  The human’s middle fingers were extended, arms thrusting out.

  [Humans use expressions when they feel helpless.]

  [Well, he is helpless. Look at him. He doesn’t have an exo-frame. It’s amazing he can even walk around without fear of death on a planet full of things that could so easily kill him.]

  That had been exactly the way Bazin felt, at first. He smiled inwardly. She hadn’t changed a bit, a mech after his own core. He did bond with her, after all.

  [He grows on you,] Bazin admitted fondly as he watched Alex jump around, mumbling to himself.

  “Bazin’s fucking wife that isn’t his wife. And what the fuck is up with the electricity? I thought your frames were supposed to contain all that.”

  [Yea, I see that,] she replied. [He’s like a parasite, using that vehicle for his protection while going at speeds that would otherwise kill him.]

  Bazin beamed. Between his human and his coremate, life on Earth was about to get more interesting.

  When Alex calmed down, he opened the door. “No way, I’m fucking walking home.” Alex turned and started walking.

  Bazin rolled beside his friend, urging the human to get in the truck. “Just get in.” Alex kept walking, so Bazin tried appealing to the human’s need to keep his existence secret. “Doesn’t it look suspicious that I’m driving from the passenger side?”

  The human slowed, but didn’t stop. “We’re out in the middle of nowhere.”

  “You know, you have other options.”

  Alex stopped, “What other options do I possibly have out here?” He motioned his arms out towards the open desert.

  “Oh, I don’t know. Thirst. Dismemberment by wild animals. Death. Those mus
t be worse than a few sparks.”

  The human gave him a long-suffering look. “I’m not sure at this point, but fine.” He jumped in the truck.

  Long silence led to boredom. Bazin looked to see if Miaxa was still there. Uncertain, afraid the mirage would disappear at any moment, he reached out to her again.

  “Stop doing that.” Miaxa’s voice cut through the cab.

  Alex nearly jumped out. “Bazin, I’m going to have a nervous breakdown,” the human said. “Whatever it is that you are doing, please, for my sanity’s sake, please stop.”

  Though the sound of her voice was comforting, Bazin sent her, [Do not talk to me through the cab. You’re making Alex nervous.]

  [I’m making him nervous? You’re the one with all the electricity.]

  [What? Only because you won’t keep your distance.]

  [Only because you keep reaching out to me, Baze. It’s driving me crazy. I swear my core can’t take much more.]

  Silence.

  Bazin reached out again, but, this time, Miaxa reached back. When he felt her touch, a heat wave passed through him that had him running the truck off the road. Alex grabbed the wheel and pulled them back onto it.

  “Just, please get me home safe,” Alex stated out loud. Bazin knew the human wasn’t necessarily talking to him. “And why is it so hot in here? Did you turn the heater on?”

  Okay, that was definitely directed at him. Bazin quickly rolled down the windows and turned the air on full blast.

  [Okay, I get it,] he said. [Just don’t disappear.]

  He felt understanding and sympathy through the bond. [I don’t know how to reassure you without joining with you. That would no doubt mean disastrous results for that organic you’re so fond of. Is this form too native? I’ll change it.]

  “Um, Bazin? I think we lost her.” Bazin thought the human sounded relieved.

  “No, she’s still there.” He nodded at the mirror. “That’s her.”

  “That’s her? But that’s a Toyota. Where did the Jeep go?”