Alien Bride (Love, Drugs, and Biopunk)

by McGill, Brie

  Lilith extended her hands to catch herself against the wall, crashing into it. She angled her body, minding the life inside her, and her shoulder thudded into the bricks.

  “You forced us to prematurely remove a clone from storage because you went missing again!” The giant marched toward her, raising his broad hand to strike her.

  Aleister unveiled a customized gun from his robe, and pointed the barrel at the giant’s forehead. “That’s enough.”

  Lilith’s eyes doubled in size. “I warned you—”

  The giant belted her. “These filthy strangers traveled here of your accord?”

  She dropped to her knees, clutching her face and leaning into the wall.

  Aleister pumped an apparatus attached to copper rods running the length of the barrel, illuminating the gun with a strawberry electric haze. “I said, that’s enough.”

  Ninkasi remained too terrified to move.

  The giant laughed, raising his eyebrows, and turned to face Aleister with an amused smile. “Who the hell are you?”

  “It doesn’t matter who I am.” His finger tensed on the trigger. “It doesn’t matter who anyone is. Nobody in their right fucking mind strikes a pregnant woman.”

  Lilith looked up at Aleister, trembling, with tears in her eyes.

  Holding her breath, Ninkasi slowly, silently tiptoed toward Lilith, hoping the giant wouldn’t hear or notice her movement.

  He spun and pointed at Ninkasi. “What is that one doing?!”

  “No.” Aleister pivoted and clutched the gun with two hands, aiming it at his face. “The question is, what are you doing?”

  The giant smacked his stomach and rippled with a rotten belly laugh. “I owe no answer to an arrogant worm—”

  “The answer” —Aleister waved the gun up and down, raising his voice, interrupting the giant— “is that you’re leaving. Now. You will turn the fuck around and leave, acting like none of this ever happened, or, so help me god, I will pull the trigger.”

  The giant snarled, baring his teeth. “You have no idea what that thing is.” Nostrils flaring, he glanced at Lilith. “You haven’t the slightest idea what we use it for.” He chuckled. “And it doesn’t matter what I do to it, because it’s about to expire—” The giant lifted a gargantuan foot and kicked her in the ribs.

  Aleister pulled the trigger.

  A blast of crackling red electricity inundated the giant with a hiss.

  The giant screamed, clutching his face with his hands and staggered backward, blinded.

  Aleister narrowed his eyes and pumped the gun again, following the blundering giant with a sniper’s precision.

  The giant roared, shaking the hall as he collapsed on his back, kicking and thrashing like a fish out of water.

  Aleister stepped closer, soaking him in a steady stream of energy. The anzein orbs sparkled and glowed with prismatic light, powering the gun.

  It was at that moment Ninkasi realized the giant, too, had six fingers. Her blood ran cold.

  The giant’s body went limp.

  Aleister nodded at Ninkasi. “That’ll do it.”

  Ninkasi’s mouth hung wide open. “Aleister, what was that?”

  He lifted the gun and fired at Ninkasi.

  The energy passed through her body and she stood unharmed, unphased. The anzein beads tucked inside her robe sparkled.

  “You’re clean.” Aleister slapped the barrel against his palm.

  Bewildered, she ignored Aleister and zoomed toward Lilith, kneeling beside her. “Can you sit up?”

  Her face contorted with anguish and she clutched her ribs. “I need. . . a moment. . .” She turned away from Ninkasi and pressed her forehead against the wall, concealing the tears welling in her eyes.

  “Lilith, who was that?” Ninkasi brushed the hair away from the girl’s face. “What’s going on?”

  “Aleister.” She sniffled, shaking her head. “He shouldn’t have done that.”

  Aleister tucked the gun into his robes and threw his arms into the air. “I should have done it right away.” His knees cracked when he knelt. “Pumpkin, can you stand?”

  Lilith squinted, tears rolling down her face, and she pressed a limp fist against the wall. “I hate him.” She spoke in the tiniest whisper. “I hate him with all my heart.”

  Moving to sit behind her, Ninkasi wrapped her arms around the girl. “It’s okay.” She rested her head on his shoulder. “It’s over. You’re okay.”

  “It’s not okay!” She pulled away from Ninkasi and sank against the wall, looking up at the ceiling. She made no effort to hide her tears. “I hate him so much that it’s corroded me.” She looked away, wiping her tears, laughing bitterly. “I have nothing left inside, other than my hate for him, which makes me no different than anyone else in this place. I am dead.” She closed her eyes, tears rolling. “Dead inside.”

  “I think you’re overreacting.” Ninkasi gently wiped her tears. “He’s obviously a cruel man.”

  “He’s not a man.” She looked her dead in the eyes. “He’s a monster.”

  “He is.” Aleister stood up, planting his hands on his hips. “But he’s passed out for the moment, so we should take advantage of that and blow the fuck out of here before he wakes up and comes looking for us.”

  “That. . . was Andrealphus.” Lilith led the trio down a winding spiral stair. “He possesses an insatiable hunger.”

  Ninkasi kept one hand against the wall, shadowing Lilith in the descent.

  “No amount of food or drink will satisfy him, though he goes to great lengths to obtain these things.” After a significant stretch of a journey passed in silence, Lilith’s emotions settled enough to allow her to speak. “His hunger is great. When he has exhausted every bottle, every table, he moves to other vices. He moves to women—” Her voice caught in her throat. “He moves toward power and control. He moves to torture other creatures—often, surface dwellers like yourselves—in the vain hope of feeling a filament of excitement, of satisfaction.

  “But he feels nothing.” She shook her head quickly. “He is eternally empty, a monster of hunger, violence, and despair. There exists no form of consumption that can soothe him.”

  Aleister sighed. “And they let him run free? Nobody’s ever tried to rein him in, pen him up?”

  “There are many Tall Ones with the same affliction.” Lilith snorted. “The only difference is Andrealphus, as the consort of my mother, has achieved a status of royalty in this place.”

  Ninkasi craned her neck forward. “What does he want from you?”

  Lilith didn't reply.

  “If you tell us what’s going on” —Ninkasi rested a hand on her shoulder— “maybe we can help you while we’re here. Maybe you don’t have to suffer alone.”

  Brutal silence.

  “You’re helping us, aren’t you?” She grew exasperated.

  “I’m helping Brother.” Lilith shook her mane of jet-black hair, indifferent. She paused. “There is something you will do for me. But not yet.”

  The stairs landed on a pebbled shore of a black river that spanned as far as Ninkasi could see, east or west, into oblivion. The river, like a moat, protected a small isle in the distance; pyres illuminated the vast expanse of alabaster beach.

  She couldn’t see the ceiling, but the air was cool, damp, like deep inside a cave.

  A bridge constructed of enormous, ancient bones offered the only passage across the river: its footpath was narrow, comprised of mammoth vertebrae; in the absence of hand railings, sharp ribs jutted from the vertebrae and curved like a cage.

  Ninkasi pointed at the bridge and opened her mouth, but words failed her.

  “Don’t fall in.” Lilith cast them a foreboding stare. “Otherwise, there is nothing I can do to help you leave this place.”

  Edging toward the bridge, Ninkasi listened to the crush of pebbles beneath her feet.

  Lilith lifted a hand to stop her. “You are not allowed to pass.”

  Ninkasi threw an arm into the air. “
Do you expect me to wait here?”

  Aleister glanced from one girl to the next.

  “No, I will see to it that you may cross.” She gazed across the waters. “But you must wait for my signal. I will be quick.” With that, she whirled around and climbed the bridge, steadying herself with the massive ribs and advancing with delicate caution, one foot directly in front of the other, as if walking on a balance beam.

  Ninkasi observed her figure disappear into the blackness; when she felt there was sufficient distance between them, she turned to Aleister and raised an eyebrow. “You know.”

  Aleister sat on the shore, wiggling into a comfortable position.

  “I noticed something.” Ninkasi knelt beside him.

  Aleister picked up a stone and tossed it, watching the stone skip across the water with a ripple and splash.

  “You have a big mouth.” She eyed him suspiciously.

  “It’s my mouth.” Aleister’s voice was quiet. “I’ll say whatever I want.”

  “Since we’ve been here” —Ninkasi lifted a finger— “you’ve been oddly silent.”

  He stared at her with a grim face, and picked up another pebble.

  “The deeper we go into this place. . .” Ninkasi stared across the bridge, and sighed. “This weird place, I don’t even know what it is—you become quieter and quieter.”

  Aleister skipped the stone impressively far across the water.

  She shifted on her feet to face him. “What gives?!”

  He remained fixated on the black water.

  “I feel like I’m the only person bothering to talk to Lilith, and like you’re not here at all!” She crossed her arms with a harrumph. “Other than that you shot down a giant—for which I’m grateful, don’t get me wrong.” She cleared her throat. “What’s going on?”

  “I’m watching.” Aleister grabbed a smooth stone, marveling at it under the torchlight.

  “Watching what?” She tilted her head.

  “I’m watching our backs.” He narrowed his eyes. “I didn’t think I’d have to prepare for something like this.”

  “Like what?” She scouted the bridge for signs of Lilith; there were none.

  Aleister remained quiet.

  “Aleister, what are the Tall Ones?” Ninkasi adjusted her posture, inquisitive, sitting up straight.

  “I don’t know where they came from.” He tossed another stone; it sank. “They have their own creation stories, but who knows if they’re true? They’re like us, but they aren’t us. They’re ancient.”

  “How do you know about them?” Her voice softened.

  Aleister reclined, staring into the blackness above, supporting his head with linked hands. “I learned about them when I joined The Brotherhood.”

  “The Brotherhood?” Ninkasi sat on her knees.

  He waved her away. “The Brotherhood teaches that exalted beings came to this world and kickstarted civilization. The Brotherhood, however, also teaches that those same beings left this planet long ago. Naturally, I have my suspicions—you never really can trust anything The Brotherhood has to say. Their lies are layered like onions.”

  She tilted her head back. “What’s the point of The Brotherhood? I thought it was a stupid club.”

  “It is a stupid club.” Aleister nodded. “It’s a scam, at the lower levels. But at the top, it’s something entirely different.” He paused. “I made it to the top—or, to what I’ve been told is the top.”

  “What’s at the top?” She stared at the water, wondering how deep it went, much like the truth of her own world.

  “The Brotherhood’s main interest is to preserve the structure of our world according to a divine right of kings.” Aleister sat up. “Kings, of course, meaning the first Tall Ones to roam the earth. Because they were so technologically advanced beyond the surface dwellers, it was easy for them to claim a divine origin upon arrival.

  "The Brotherhood functions as a network to ensure adherence to a purity of these so-called sacred bloodlines, and functions to infiltrate every institution of power—be it financial, political, military, religious, educational—with those that share the blood, so they may guide its development, maintain their power hierarchy, and ensure a free world never falls into the hands of the unwashed masses.” Aleister whipped out his gun, and pointed it at Ninkasi’s head. “The unwashed masses being smart little girls like you, pure creatures that might envision the world differently.” He tensed his finger on the trigger. “Innocent little things that might have the noble idea to redistribute their wealth toward humanitarian efforts.”

  “Slow down.” She lifted her hands in the air. “So you’re related to them? You carry their blood?”

  “Vestigially.” Aleister nodded.

  Ninkasi turned away from him. “Is. . . Orion one of them?”

  He blew out a huge breath.

  She laughed quietly. “It makes sense.” She dug her feet in the pebbles. “As much sense as this can make, anyway. So, influential people all over the world carry traces of their ancient blood?" Ninkasi massaged her temples. "And The Brotherhood is a way for distant relatives to meet other distant relatives in order to maintain familial control of the planet?"

  Aleister swatted an open palm against her back. "Righto!"

  Ninkasi lurched forward, stopping herself with palms in the sand. "Do you think the people in charge even know the extent of it?"

  He shrugged. “I suspect I was denied entry into the above-top levels of The Brotherhood.” Aleister crossed his legs. “I had done them no wrong, but they were aware of the close relationship with my traitorous Uncle Eldon.”

  “Your uncle who defected?” She glanced at the bridge, empty.

  “I was taught a detailed cosmology of these creatures.” He shook his head. “I was taught to speak, read, and write their alphabets. I was instructed in their rituals, and their law, and I was told it was to please them, should they ever return. I was told we were stewards, to mind the world as they had left it, and we would be eternally rewarded upon their return.”

  “But they never left.” Ninkasi’s eyes widened. “At least, not all of them. Some of them are still here.”

  Aleister pursed his lips, nodding gravely. “I always suspected the whole of human involvement with The Brotherhood was for the purpose of being pawned.” He bit his lip. “What I can’t yet determine is how many of the Tall Ones are still here.” He glanced over his shoulder. “The real ones, the first ones, not the half-breeds. Echidna is one of them, and honest to god, I never thought we'd meet.”

  She listened to the crackle of pyres. “You really think none of them are human?”

  Aleister tilled his heels through the pebbles. “I think they recruit a wide variety of humans, especially at the lower ranks of The Brotherhood, to do their bidding.”

  Ninkasi stared through the flames, through the water. She wondered about Merve, his family, their company. Would her parents have married her off to one of these creatures? Would she have even known?

  She pictured herself locked in a less illustrious tower, Merve wearing fur-lined royal attire, and a little throng of purple, winged demon-children tugging at her skirts, screaming to be fed.

  “What these ordinary folks don’t suspect—when they accept that shiny new vahan, that promotion, that cocktail party, that paycheck, all the perks that are a part of that great new job—is that they pay for it invisibly with their souls.” Aleister balled a fist and shook it at the black heavens. “By acquiescing to this persuasive system with its reward of material comforts—they sell out their own species. They retard the growth and development of the human race, they turn a blind eye and allow the suffering of millions beneath them by enabling this power structure, by allowing it to flourish.”

  “Like my father.” Ninkasi pursed her lips.

  “Jambu, despite the fact that it’s incredibly small, is one of the wealthiest nations on the planet and exerts a powerful influence on the world economy.” He cracked his knuckles. “Jambu is a swing v
ote in major global affairs. Because of its revolutionary founding, it tends toward deregulation and individual sovereignty.” He looked her in the eyes. “Your father’s bloc vote is huge. If he is successfully lobbied by Techthonic Innovations, Jambu’s impetus for sovereignty and individual rights will be severely destabilized.”

  She stared at the shore, swirling a finger through the tumbled pebbles.

  Aleister snorted. “Look at Daitya. I don’t want to live there.”

  Ninkasi flopped on her back. “That’s why you wanted to kidnap him.”

  “It is.” He looked over his shoulder. “I told you it wasn’t personal.”

  She took a deep breath: this was a lot of information to digest. “Can you explain how the anzein crystals work?”

  “Everything on our planet is tuned to a certain frequency, all the people, all the plants, all the animals.” Aleister drummed his fingers against the gun. “The anzein amplifies and directs that energy. It will promote the healing of anything native to this planet, and it will destroy anything that isn't.”

  Ninkasi pointed at Aleister. "So I can't be shot with the gun because my frequency is the same as the planet's?"

  "That, and, I think it has to do with your blood type." He threw another stone. "I can get hit with both."

  She craned her neck forward. "That means the kluzein. . ."

  "Yup." He nodded. "It heals them."

  Lilith dismounted from the bone bridge and approached them with crunchy steps through the pebbles. “I have convinced them to grant you entry. We must hurry.”

  Ninkasi raised an eyebrow. “You convinced them?”

  “Under normal circumstances, not even half-breeds are allowed.” She shook her head. “Come.”

  Chunky Stew

  XVI.

  “Yeesh!” Ninkasi leapt down from the bone bridge and frantically patted her hands against her robes. “That was creepy!”

  Lilith approached a single-story warehouse at the edge of the stony beach.

  Aleister followed.

  “Nobody else found that creepy?” She tagged after Aleister, tilting her head toward him. “Not even a little?”