by Ellen Mint
Nolan twisted onto his back, encouraging me to cuddle up to him. The dress eventually made its way to the floor, along with my industrial-grade bra allowing me to caress my skin across all of his. I swept my palm over his chest, the soft hair tickling my lifelines. Wanting to feel even closer, I straddled my leg over his, my inner thigh gliding down Nolan’s.
In doing so, I felt the strengthening cock rising from its snooze. My fingers flexed at the idea of touching it, but I kept them swirling over his chest. Though, my leg kept lightly grazing it as I tried to massage Nolan’s thighs with mine.
“Did you ever?” he asked. I’d been so focused on his dick, I completely forgot what we’d been talking about. “Design a game, I mean.”
“Oh. Um, once in college. Nothing special by any stretch. A friend who was minoring in graphic design did all the art. Swore we’d get rich. As if anyone would want to play a game where the objective is to successfully hide from el Cuco.”
Nolan picked my hand off his chest and raised it to his lips. Placing a soft kiss to the knuckles, he whispered, “I’m certain it’s magnificent.”
Hardly. I only got a few levels done, and they were so buggy it would never be playable. Strange, me cracking whether P could equal NP felt the same as Huye Del Cuco.
“Are you thinking?” Nolan asked, shaking me from said thoughts.
“How can you…?” I started before blushing.
He smiled. “Whenever you make that tick-tock noise I know you’re thinking through a problem.”
Oh, God. The blush deepened at the idea of anyone noticing one of my many tics. “I was wondering why I became so hellbent on the reason the galaxy wants to steal from me or make me dead. Or both.”
“A race for knowledge?” the bounty hunter who collected data for a living said the way a hedge fund manager would shrug off the strange notion of wanting money. Knowledge is good, hard to deny that.
“I gave up so much spare time for it, just like the game.” Kept ignoring invitations to work events, casual drink getting. Even the time away from my computer to pick up groceries felt insurmountable. I devoted myself, body and soul to the code. “I think I wanted to stop being the third.”
“Third?”
Damnit. I never told people that I was a triplet. Men in particular would get weird about that fact. Most who learned it from Ava would slobber all over themselves wondering if the other two looked just like her. Which was when she’d introduce Diego. That tended to slow them down until they heard she also had an identical twin.
Then they’d see me, the weirdo hiding behind her hair stuck up with Pokéball barrettes, and all their sick incest fantasies would slam up into their gut. I didn’t want to see the same in Nolan.
“I have…two older siblings.” By a few minutes, but still the truth.
“Ah,” he said, nodding his head deeper into the pillow. “And you’re weary of their long shadow.”
Beyond. Not that I don’t love them both, but the rest of my family was made up of fantastic lawyers, business owners, and labor organizers. No one enjoyed sitting quietly in a room for days plugging in code to see what spat out. The weird, solitary nerd was the black sheep of the Martinez family.
“I just wanted to show them, prove I could be as amazing as they are.”
“That dread of being left behind. Watching your…siblings stretch out into the universe before you. Always wondering if anything of value would remain by the time you left the nest.”
I tried to crane my head up to look at Nolan, but he stared into the distance. “How many brothers and sisters do you have?”
His eyes darted down to me, his mouth hanging open. It was almost as if I caught him by surprise. But he cupped my cheek and his lips melted into an easy smile. “Enough to share in your pain.”
I ached to kiss his parted lips, to confess to him the knot of unworthy that forever sat in my aorta. But another bugbear lurked in the shadows of my mind. In all that time we worked side by side, he’d rebuked me. Yet, the second he needs me for monetary gain, I’m in his bed.
Don’t get taken to the cleaners by a pair of shiny biceps, Trini.
“Speaking of my research, perhaps I should start trying to solve it,” I said, moving to slide off the bed. This was proving to be a challenge as the man’s bed looked like two king-sized mattresses pushed together. An entire person could sleep stretched out below me.
Nolan sat up, watching me get to my feet. “As you wish,” he said while I bent over to find my dress. Working to crack one of the codes of the universe while naked felt disrespectful to the science gods. “Wait,” he called, reaching out to catch my wrist. His fingers slid down my delicate skin to wrap around mine. “Why don’t we have something to eat first?”
“Okay,” I said, excitement flooding through me. I would get to try alien food! But even as Nolan slipped on his cottony gray pants, the warning klaxon kept on wailing.
Red Alert, Trini. You’re being used.
Shuffling across the floor thanks to the blanket wrapped around my body mummy-style, I followed Nolan into his kitchen. Or so I assumed. There was a table, metal and soldered into the wall itself. No chairs sat beside it, though that felt like a bachelor thing. Why sit at the table to eat when there was a perfectly good couch?
Did aliens have tv or recorded entertainment at all?
It was a shock that he had a table.
Back in his trusty gray sweatpants, Nolan walked to the long line of counters. There was no hint of a fridge or stove, just the continuous metal and blue-accented counters that put me in mind of a futuristic doctor’s office.
“What would you like?” he asked and ran his hand across the space just above the counter. The same green light show burst to life under him. I couldn’t understand a single squiggly line, but Nolan looked at it as he read aloud. “Are you in more of a sweet or savory mood?”
Alien food. I clasped my hands together to try to rub them in anticipation, but it caused the blanket to slip out of my armpits. Grabbing one end and trying to roll it into a safety knot, I said, “Whatever you think is best.”
“Hm, well, there’s the leftover lasagna.”
“Lasagna?”
“Vegetarian, I think. And I cataloged an onion soup I discovered I didn’t like.”
This had to be a joke. “We’re in space and all you have is…lasagna? Where’s the alien food? The Kirkan berries, or Baxnar roast, or other strange and mysterious things like the color of a sunset in edible form?”
Nolan laughed and tried to brush back his shock of wild hair. “That’s quite the imagination you’ve got. Sorry, nothing exotic in the stocks. I’d been on earth for a while and only refueled planetside.”
That made an annoying amount of sense. I tried to not frown, though my disappointment had to be palpable as Nolan swept a hand around my waist. He tugged me closer and brushed his lips to my cheek. Twisting one of my curls around his finger before tucking it back, he said, “I promise, once we reach the galactic core, I’ll buy you the biggest sunset color pudding I can.”
“Does that really exist?”
He shrugged and placed a finger to his lips. “Have to wait and see. In the meantime, what about a slice of pie?”
Placing his hand over the green interface, Nolan must have pressed an invisible button as a hole appeared in the counter space. From inside of it shot out a single perfect slice of mincemeat pie hovering above a plate. When Nolan touched the blue metal, the pie came to a gentle fall.
He didn’t use a fork, but hefted the pie up, crust and all, and took a bite while I stared. “What is with all the pie?” slipped from me, causing Nolan to look concerned. “It’s just…I’ve never known a man to make a pie, never mind the harvest festival’s worth you seem to have.”
“There’s a…an explanation,” Nolan said while prodding more of the controls. This time an apple pie slice popped out of the containment unit. He picked that one up too and directed me toward the table. “This was my first successful b
ounty,” he said while dropping both plates to the table.
“What? Pie?” I tried hovering around the table, uncertain where to go or how to eat it.
Nolan nodded and splayed his palm over a panel that looked too big for his hand. As it lit up green, the floor below my feet opened and two stools shot out of the ground. Nolan swung his leg over and sat while I eased around. The blanket’s dragging tail proved difficult to maneuver, and—as I sat—it tugged further down my chest.
The star man's tale paused, along with his next bite, as he stared at my hewn cleavage. A blush churned in my stomach and I picked at the pie with my fingers. Even if he was using me, at least he seemed to enjoy putting in the hard work. Would it be so bad if I used him back?
“Pie!” Nolan shouted, then he coughed and began again, “I mean, it was the recipe for pie. The concept of placing various fruits and nuts between the crust of a flour-based pastry that I shared with the universe.”
“You mean stole?”
“Is it really stealing when your people already share the information across numerous books, tiny cards, and in papers delivered to every doorstep?”
Newspapers? How old was he?
I tried to stare anew at the man I always took to be in his early to mid-twenties, at most. Was there a magical de-aging cream in space, or some other trick? Perhaps relativity at play.
My mind flashed back to the PowerPoint sides in undergrad to explain Einstein’s theory. One twin was left on earth, traveling at the same speed as all the other humans. Another twin was blasted into space, traveling at the speed of light, and returned to find their sibling aged years beyond them. Would that happen to me and Ava?
“I’m surprised no one shared the pie knowledge already,” I said, trying to hide the tremor in my mind while taking another bite of the pie. God help me, but it was delicious. “Was it because no one had found Earth yet?”
“Oh, no. The planet has been cataloged for…” Nolan said, before shaking his head. “Food from other worlds, especially pre-GC worlds—that’s galactic core—doesn’t go for much. A handful of pesos at best.”
I stared harder at him, certain I heard the word pesos, but I couldn’t understand why. The space aliens used Spanish currency? That made no sense whatsoever.
“But, turned out to my surprise the concept of pie was a life-changer. Almost all the species who specialize in cuisine found exciting combinations with adding their national fruits and vegetables inside a crust. It was how I bought my ship,” Nolan said while waving a hand to encompass his doctor-kitchen.
A pie bounty hunter. I’d heard crazier things.
What? No, I hadn’t. This was easily the craziest day of my life.
“Not as much as your research would bring in, but a nice cushion of pesos regardless.”
I scrunched my nose and glanced away from the apple and pie crust crumbling out of my hands. “Why do you keep saying pesos?”
Nolan blinked slowly. “I don’t.”
“Yes, you do. Whenever I think you’re going to say whatever works for space money. Credits, or chits, or something that sounds like gargling, it keeps coming out as pesos.”
His confusion melted to a smile and Nolan snickered. “I understand. You’re not used to the language bug.”
My heart leaped up, a rampant fear of all things with more than four legs sending me whipping my head around. “Bug? What bug?”
“It’s not actually a bug, more an alteration to your DNA.”
“What?!”
“When you were transported onboard, the computer recognized you were without and added it. I forget the official name, we all call it the bug. Basically, if you listen to enough of a foreign language, eventually you’ll be able to understand it in your cerebral cortex.”
I crammed my pinkie into my ear despite all those health articles advising against it and tried to swirl around. Nothing metallic clawed at me, but it could be buried deeper. “No, no. That’s…is that safe? Healthy?”
Nolan shrugged. “It’s standard.”
“But I saw you say pesos. Formed it with your…” I gestured to his mouth, which was quirking ever higher in a smile.
“Ah, that. Why it’s DNA tech and not say a cute tech bud to put in your ear. It also alters how you view the lip formation of words in your…either the eyes or the brain. I forget. So if you were deaf you could still read lips. Assuming you could read lips. What species have them.”
My entire DNA was unraveled and inserted with alien code? Without my knowledge. Without my consent. I should have at least had a chance to… “Why didn’t you warn me?”
“I forgot. Everyone I’ve ever known has one. People who want to show off learn fifteen different languages the hard way, but most use the bug. It’s not foolproof. Slang does not carry and some people sound more erudite than they actually are.”
I chewed on my nail, finding a clump of cinnamon sugar hiding under it while I ripped at my cuticle. Something was sitting on my brain, in my brain, inside of my DNA. What if that caused cancer? Was I already running the risk of every type of space cancer possible? Would it make a tumor that could talk?
“Trini,” Nolan said, picking up my hand and catching the nervous one I chewed up. “If it concerns you, I can have it removed right now.”
There would be other aliens on this adventure. Ones who’d speak in God only knew what tongue. If you rip away that only olive branch of communication, you’ll feel stupid for missing out on so many opportunities. “No,” I said, shaking my head. “No, it’s…it’s okay. I’ll just try to not think about it.”
Nolan smiled as if that was a good enough answer while I glanced to the shiny wall. My warped reflection gazed back, the skin color muted and my under eyes dark purple.
He needs me to be his next source of pie. To use my brains to do the math that gets him a new ship. Maybe one with a pool on it or something. Did aliens even have pools?
I shook the thought off. It didn’t entirely matter what his reasons were. I too could benefit from advanced tech at my fingertips and return to earth with a million-dollar answer.
But… I drew my eyes along his hands, watching the veins rising from below his skin. The skin that’d been pressed to mine. “All that time together on…in the lab, and—maybe you didn’t notice—but I kept trying to ask you out.”
Nolan’s easy smile flattened. He bundled his hands together, digging the fingers in. “Yes, I…picked up on that.”
“But you kept turning me down,” I said, staring at him. All that time, all those opportunities, and suddenly he gets me into bed. Wants me there. “I just need to know, I mean… I’m not a charity case. If you have no interest in me, then—”
He sat up, his palm cupping to my cheek. “Trini, you’ve fascinated me since my first week of infiltration.”
“Then why…?”
“Because I knew, once the job was over, I’d have to leave.”
I leaned into his hold, wanting to believe he’d been pining for me for months. “Without telling me the truth?”
I expected him to lie. To claim that he’d always intended to explain to me who he was and maybe get my permission. But he glanced up and said, “That was the plan. When everything changed, I lost my resolve.”
“To what?”
Nolan rose to his feet over the table. He whispered, “To stay away from you,” just before his lips pressed to mine. I hung onto his forearm, diving fully into the kiss and clinging tight. To his explanation, to this impossible event that led me into space. To the hope that there might be more for me beyond math.
“I suppose…” I shuddered, smiling like a giddy fool at the taste of him brushing against my mouth. “I should get to work, then.”
Nolan’s eyes glanced down to the half-eaten pies, then back to me. “I think we can afford one more break,” he said and tugged on the blanket until my breasts popped out. “Or perhaps two.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
DAMN IT!
Hunched over the con
sole, I snatched up the eraser tube like it was a knife and plunged it into the data stream. It didn’t do anything aside from warp the projection, but I kept swiping back and forth as if that would obliterate the last hour’s worth of dribble.
Taking what I’d puzzled out after two years of work and expanding it to an answer was a hard enough challenge. But thanks to the murder squid I was starting at square one. Which required more stabbing of glowing green light. Die die die!
“Going well?”
My heart stopped and I spun around wildly. In doing so, my elbow smacked into a mega-cup of coffee. “Oh shit,” I shouted, twisting around to try and catch the falling liquid about to splash over billion-dollar space technology. But I wasn’t fast enough.
As the universal drink of exhausted scientists ran out of the tipped cup, the entire console’s glowing display vanished. “Damn it,” I shouted for the fiftieth time and picked up the hem of my skirt to try and dab the coffee away. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to… Does this ship have a bag of rice?”
Nolan chuckled. One hand brushed against my shoulder while the other stopped me from staining my dress more. “Let me,” he said without releasing me. His lips crested near my cheek, and he pressed a button under the console. In an instant, the coffee beaded up into single droplets and floated off of the panel.
I stared in wonder at the suspended java molecules, flaring ship lights refracting through their brown hue. “This is beautiful,” I whispered, leaning closer and reaching for the coffee. My finger extended toward the single perfect sphere rotating effortlessly through the air.
A symphony of laughs percussed against my cheek, freezing my prodding finger. I turned, my eyebrow raised when Nolan brushed his palm under my jaw. “You’re beautiful, but I wouldn’t stick my finger in there.”
“Why…?”
The answer came as a high-powered vacuum dropped a suction circle the size of a dinner plate over the floating liquid. In a millisecond, every drop of coffee vanished into a tube running through the high ceiling of the ship. I had to crane my neck back to watch it travel around the room.