by Meg Ripley
"I'm finished," she said softly to him when she secured the end of the gauze and tossed her scissors onto the bedside table.
"Who are you?" he asked through gritted teeth as if trying to distract himself with the words rather than focusing on the pain.
"My name is Alexis. I'm the colony medic."
He opened his eyes and looked at her questioningly.
"Colony?"
"We traveled here from Earth almost two years ago to colonize this planet. My father is the commander of the mission." She paused, trying to choose her words carefully, and finally deciding to go with the ones he had used with her, "Who are you?"
"I'm Tyrok."
He stopped without elaborating any further and she looked at him.
"Are you…." she trailed off, not wanting to offend him.
"Human?" he asked with a hint of laughter in his voice and she nodded, "No, just a stunning facsimile."
He laughed but Alexis found her heart beating a little faster. Stunning was absolutely right.
"Where did you come from, Tyrok?" she asked, fighting the urge to look at his bare chest again.
"A planet not too far from here. You've likely never heard of it."
"Where were you going when you crashed?"
Tyrok didn't respond and Alexis turned her attention from the medical kit she was organizing in her lap to his face. His eyes were wide, his mouth partially open. The color had drained from his skin and his body was shaking.
"Tyrok?" she said, reaching out to touch his arm, "Tyrok? Are you alright?"
His convulsions became more intense and Alexis dropped the kit to the floor. She took Tyrok by his shoulders and looked down into his eyes. They stared blankly back at her and she heard faint gurgling sounds coming from his throat. This was something she had never seen before, but had studied in her intensive training program before leaving on the mission.
Leaving Tyrok on the bed, Alexis scrambled out of the house and ran as fast as she could toward the partially completed clinic on the other side of the village. It was a small building she had insisted they build in the first few weeks of being on the planet, but one they had used only a couple of times to handle the illnesses and minor injuries they had encountered. It was not equipped to handle the severity of what Tyrok was facing, but she knew that somewhere in the containers that filled the back room were the supplies she needed to hopefully get him through.
"Alexis!" James's voice called to her from outside the clinic.
Alexis dug through the dust-covered containers, desperately searching for the small black box she knew was on the inventory list. She heard her father call out her name again and she screamed back at him without removing her attention from her task.
"What are you doing?" James asked, coming into the room.
"He's crashing."
"What?"
"Tyrok, the man I found on the ship. He's crashing. I stitched him up and he was absolutely fine, and then he started convulsing and is unresponsive."
"What does that mean?"
Alexis finally wrapped her hand around the black box and brought it out of the storage container with a sigh of relief.
"It means that I need to get this to him as quickly as possible if he is going to have any chance of survival. Then I need you to come back to the ship with me."
"I didn't find anyone else."
"Exactly."
Alexis pushed past her father toward the clinic door.
"What do you mean?"
"The ship wasn't burning anymore, was it?"
"No."
She nodded.
"Just wait for me."
James nodded in agreement and she ran out of the clinic and back toward her house. She could hear Tyrok gurgling in the bedroom as she ran through the kitchen.
"Hold on, Tyrok," she said when she got into the bedroom.
His eyes were still fixed on the ceiling above him and his body arched and thrashed with such violence it sent her pillows skittering across the floor. Alexis spread the contents of the black box on her bedside table and scanned them, trying to draw the instructions from her training back to the front of her memory. Tyrok made another strangled sound and she grabbed a large syringe from the pile. Lifting it above her head, she brought the needle down into Tyrok's heart.
****
James was standing outside her house when Alexis ran back through the door and out into the sunlight. Without a word, she started back toward the crash site. The bag over her shoulder contained several of the items from the black box and she stayed silent to steel herself for what awaited her at the mangled ship.
Her father fell into step beside her and Alexis allowed herself to find comfort in his presence. As long as she could remember, it had been just the two of them. She had followed in his footsteps going into the military, taking a medical path rather than the combat duties he assumed, and even as an adult still admired and looked up to him.
As soon as they crested the hill she could see the changes that had come over the crash scene. The flames were gone and only shadowy remnants of smoke remained in the sky. They drew closer and she could hear strange clicking sounds coming from deep within the metal. Reaching into the bag, she withdrew a long knife. The edge of the blade sparkled with the tiny microchips embedded along the metal. She turned the hilt around in her palm, feeling the heft of the weapon.
"I need you to stay out here and watch the ship," she told James, "Call in to me if you notice anything strange."
"Like what?" he asked, a hint of both confusion and concern in his voice.
"You'll know," she told him, ducking down to enter the ship again.
Around her the crashed vessel was eerily quiet except for the clicking. She moved along the hallway cautiously, watching the red glow from the emergency lights for any sign of shadows or movement. The sound of a piece of metal falling to the floor ahead of her startled her and Alexis pressed herself to the wall. Sliding around the corner, she saw what made the sound.
A panel lay on the floor beneath an exposed section of the internal components of the ship. Tiny lights flashed within the components, occasionally joined by a small spark. She watched the section in silence for a few seconds. Nervousness rolled through her belly and her hand twitched on the hilt of the knife. A moment later, the flashing diodes within the components disappeared as something dark slithered across them.
Alexis surged forward, pushing herself off the wall to propel her body toward the open section of the wall. She brought the knife down into the thick black tentacle with all of the strength she could put behind it. It bucked against her, nearly shoving her back against the wall, but she held her ground, keeping the knife deeply buried in the rubbery, muscular creature.
A strangled animal scream reverberated through the ship and Alexis finally withdrew the knife. Oily-looking blood obscured the glitter from the microchips and she carefully returned the knife to her bag. The tentacle coiled, then shot down toward the floor, extending from the wall as it slithered toward her. Alexis jumped away from it and began to run.
She could feel the creature hitting the backs of her heels as she ran, pushing her to run faster and harder until she finally burst out of the ship into her father's arms.
"Alexis! What was that scream?"
"Come on," she said without answering his question, "we need to get back to my house."
Out of the corner of her eye she saw the end of the tentacle dip out of the door, then recoil back into the ship. She met James's eyes, then started back toward her house.
Tyrok was quiet on the bed when she entered her bedroom, but she knew that was only an effect of the drug she had injected into his heart. It would not last for long without the next step of the treatment. She pulled the knife out and let the bag drop to the floor. Coming to the side of the bed, she gazed down at him. He was gorgeous, more beautiful than any man she had ever seen, and she felt drawn to him.
She paused long enough to run her fingers along the curves of his face. Her hea
rt was pounding in her chest and she felt tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes.
"I'm sorry," she whispered and reached forward to draw the knife from the base of his throat down the middle of his chest.
She stopped right above his heart and tilted the knife, pushing the tip deeper into his skin. Bright green blood slicked across his body and he arched toward the pressure of the knife. Alexis watched as the microchips glowed, lighting up as if drawing power out of Tyrok's body. When they went dark, she pulled the knife away and dropped it on the floor, no longer wanting to see it.
"Alexis? Are you alright?" James asked from the doorway.
She hadn't realized that he was standing there and felt self-conscious in the way that she gazed at Tyrok. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she dipped a fresh cloth into the water basin and started carefully washing the blood away from his chest.
"I'm fine," she said, putting as much conviction into the words as she could.
"No, you're not. What just happened?"
"I'm fine, Dad. I'm a doctor. This is what I trained to do. I can't get emotional about it."
"But you are. What did you just do to him?"
"There is something in the ship. It embedded Tyrok with control chips so that he and the ship were linked. He was the only one on it because he was all the creature needed. When the ship crashed, it lifted some of the control, but the creature is trying to fix it, which means interfering with the components directly linked to Tyrok. It must have damaged them, because he was crashing. As the creature tried to repair the ship, it was killing him."
"I don't understand."
Alexis finished washing Tyrok and dried him carefully.
"I need you to help me lift him so I can wrap his chest and change the sheets on the bed. He's going to have to stay here for a while."
James allowed the conversation to drop as he helped her lift Tyrok off the bed and place him carefully on the sofa in the living room so that she could replace the bedding that was now soaked in blood and water. He continued to prop him up as Alexis wound long strips of gauze around him to cover the wounds on his chest, then lowered him carefully to the sheets.
"I had to deactivate the control chips," she said softly as she brought the cool, fresh sheet up over Tyrok.
"Is he going to be alright?" James asked.
"I hope so."
****
For days Tyrok lay still and silent in Alexis's bed. She knew his body was fighting to regain control of itself and restore order now that the chips were no longer controlling him. She found herself talking to him as she went about her duties, telling him about herself, the mission, her worries, and anything that came to mind.
Rather than asking for her father's help, she changed his bandages herself, cutting the strips away to reveal his healing wounds and then allowing his body to rest against hers as she propped him up to wrap him in new gauze. Each time she looked at him she felt herself falling harder for him. He was startlingly attractive, but she felt a connection to him that went beyond just the smoothness of his skin, the curve of his full lips, and the long eyelashes curled against his cheeks.
It had been more than a week since the crash when she came in from a particularly difficult day, bathed, and stopped by her bed to touch his face before going into the living room to sleep on the couch. As she stood there, however, the empty space beside him on the bed seemed to call out to her. The expanse looked cool and soft. She had had James help her change the sheets again the day before and she could still smell the fresh scent clinging to the fabric.
Her entire body seemed to release its tension at once as Alexis lowered herself to the mattress and rested back into the pillows. After a week sleeping on the couch the bed felt heavenly beneath her. The sensation of Tyrok so close to her only increased the feeling of calm and she curled onto her side with her back to him so she could drift to sleep.
Alexis didn't realize how deeply she was sleeping until she suddenly snapped awake. For a moment, she didn't know what had awoken her, then she felt the movement beside her again and realized that Tyrok was stirring. She remained still, not wanting to startle him any more than just waking up beside a stranger probably already would by turning over to face him.
She expected him to jump out of the bed and start asking questions, but instead he surprised her by sliding closer. The warmth of his body wrapped around her, drawing up against her back to tuck himself into all of her curves. She gasped slightly and felt him touch a hand to her hip, then draw it up and drape it around her waist.
"Tyrok," she started, but didn't know how to continue.
His face nuzzled her hair at the back of her neck.
"I could hear you," he said softly, the sound of his voice sending a shiver down her spine.
"When?" she asked.
"Every day. I could hear you talking to me. It is the only thing that kept me going."
He touched a kiss to the back of her shoulder. She sighed at the feeling and rolled over so that she faced him. Their bodies touched lightly and their faces were so close Alexis could feel his breath on her lips.
"Tell me more," Tyrok whispered and she smiled.
"About what?"
"About you. I want to know everything."
She laughed and cuddled a little closer to him, tucking her hands under her cheek.
"There isn't much to tell. I have been here for almost two years and before that I was in the military back home, and before that I was raised by a military man, which basically means I was always in the military."
She laughed again and he smiled. Her heart soared.
"Are you ever homesick?" he asked.
Alexis nodded.
"Sometimes. It's just so different here, but I've only ever had my father, so at least he's here with me."
"What do you miss the most about Earth?"
Alexis let out a long breath of air, looking into the distance as she pondered his question. There were many things that she missed about the comfort of her home planet, but finally she settled on the one thing that pulled at her the most.
"The stars. I always loved looking at the stars. It never gets dark for long enough here to see them."
She looked back into Tyrok's face and saw him smiling at her.
"Watch this," he whispered and rolled onto his back.
Alexis followed his lead, flipping onto her back so that her shoulder touched his. Tyrok reached beside him to the bedside table and closed the cover down over the small nightlight she had placed on the table the week before as if to keep vigil over him. Alexis had drawn the light-blocking curtains and suddenly they were in nearly complete darkness.
She felt Tyrok sit up slightly then heard a sound as if he was blowing out a stream of air. Above her the ceiling shimmered then came to life with dozens of tiny balls of light. They glittered against the darkness, shifting every few moments to create patterns and familiar constellations.
Alexis gasped, but couldn't move. She stared at the stars surrounding her and felt emotion welling in her throat. A few tiny sounds escaped her lips and Tyrok rested back against the pillows.
"You're –" she started, but paused again.
"Yes."
Alexis gave a short laugh.
"I didn't think you were real," she shook her head and tried to come up with the words to make more sense, "I mean, Star Lords. I thought they were just a fairy tale."
"Do you think that I'm just a fairy tale?" he asked and she noticed his voice had dropped lower.
She turned back onto her side to face him at the same moment that he rolled toward her.
"Maybe," she breathed and felt his hand come to her cheek.
His thumb stroked her cheekbone gently, then he ran his fingertips along the curve of her jaw. Using his hand to steady her head, he drew his face closer and touched his lips to hers.
****
Tyrok lifted his lips from hers and stared into her face as if evaluating her reaction. In the shimmer of starlight, she c
ould see his stunning, unworldly eyes and felt like she was falling into them. After a moment, he brought his mouth back to hers. Alexis relaxed into the kiss, complying with the pressure of his mouth to open her lips. He coaxed her tongue forward and stroked it with his, eliciting a small moan from her throat.
Alexis felt Tyrok press his body closer to hers, then loop an arm around her waist so he could lift her up and roll onto his back to bring her down on top of him. She slid against him and felt the roughness of the gauze on his wounds touch the sliver of skin exposed between the hem of her shirt and her waistband.
"Are you ok?" she asked.
Tyrok nodded, lifting his head to capture her mouth in another kiss. When they parted, Alexis pushed back so that she sat on her knees straddling his hips. She tucked her fingers under the end of the bandage and loosened it. Moving slowly, she pulled the layers of the gauze so that they slid out of place. As they unwound from around him the bandages revealed his chiseled body and a scar down the center of his chest from where she cut him.
Tossing the bandages aside, Alexis leaned down and touched a kiss to the scar. Tyrok sighed beneath her and she continued, trailing her lips up his chest and onto his neck. Tyrok's hands came up to cup her hips, his fingertips kneading into her. They moved up so that he could grasp the hem of her shirt and pull it up over her head, dropping it over the edge of the bed.
He rolled them over so that he hovered over her, nudging her thighs apart with his so that he could settle his hips between them. Alexis felt his hand come to the front of her bra and release the clasp. She shifted her weight to allow him to peel the garment away and toss it aside to join her shirt. His mouth dropped to one breast and Alexis gasped, arching against the feeling of his tongue slipping around her hardened nipple.
Tyrok's mouth traveled over to give the same attention to the other nipple, then moved onto her belly. The tip of his tongue touched her skin, dragging down toward her hips and dipping into her navel. He kissed down to the waistband of her pants and Alexis felt herself writhing in anticipation of a more intimate touch. She felt his hands come to the front of her pants to unfasten them and he blew a cool stream of air against the skin he had dampened with his tongue. Alexis's breath caught in her throat and she lifted her hips, allowing him to ease her pants down over her hips and off of her.