by Eden Ember
Blaire rolled over, tears beginning to fill her eyes. Remorse over how she had spoken to him filled her. Kezon was only trying to help her and do his job. He cared for his people and he traveled more than halfway across the galaxy to fetch her.
Kezon came by later that evening to check on her and she turned to face him, tears still in her eyes.
“Do you have a moment to talk?” she asked.
“Sure,” he replied as he pulled up a chair. She noticed the glowing under his tunic when he bent over to sit, but she didn’t bring it up to him.
“I’m sorry for the way I’ve behaved with you. Please forgive me. I’m not too nice when I feel like shit. The infusion is helping and I’m feeling better now. It doesn’t excuse my behavior though,” she lamented.
Kezon put his hand on her arm and patted it. All six fingers made his hand appear much larger, but then again he’s an alien to her and not human. There were plenty of features that made him appear humanlike too, though. “Blaire, it’s alright. I understand that we have uprooted you from your home planet, put you on a ship, and are now traveling faster than your body can handle right now. When the flight sickness goes away, you’ll never have it again, or so I’ve been told,” Kezon said as he smiled at her.
“This is so different from the only life I’ve ever known. I miss Earth and I miss my people. I feel out of control with this flight sickness. Normally I’m very healthy and hardly ever get sick. I’m not accustomed to being waited on like this or being forced to rest for long periods of time. I’m quite a type A personality,” Blaire told him.
“Type A personality?” he mused.
She chuckled. “It means that I’m accustomed to being in complete charge of my life. I was the head of the laboratory where I worked on Earth. No one had to wait on me. I’m a bit of a loner as well. I enjoy being with my petri dishes and microscopes and test tubes,” Blaire laughed. Kezon laughed with her.
“I’m not accustomed to flying all over the galaxy either, but I’m learning. We’ll learn together and maybe we can even become friends!” Kezon smiled at his guest as he sat near her bed. There was something already between them, though neither seemed to know exactly what that was. There would be some time to look into that, but not much. The mission was of paramount importance. Personal feelings would have to take a back seat.
Chapter 7
Kezon
The fourth wormhole was a much smoother transition for Blaire, thankfully. She was able to hold down the contents of her stomach as she stayed seated in a chair in the lab. It pleased Kezon enough that he relaxed, hoping she would be able to create the virus in time to reach Arthexei.
“Sir, I tried to check on Blaire, and she locked me out of the lab,” Ahlan said as he walked up to Kezon on the bridge.
“I’ll check on her,” Kezon replied. The Terran had an unpredictability about her.
Sure enough, Blaire had locked the laboratory doors. Kezon placed his command cuff against the panel, overriding it effortlessly. The doors slid open and Blaire’s eyes shot up toward him in surprise.
“Really? You can’t leave me alone long enough to figure this all out?” she said while grimacing at him.
“Honestly, I thought by now you’d realize Ahlan is just trying to make certain that you had fared well through the last wormhole,” Kezon answered her.
“Ta-da! I’m fine. I’m on this wretched mission trying to do what you’ve commissioned me to do. How can I, though, with all these interruptions?” She scowled at the two as Ahlan stepped to Kezon’s side.
Kezon flinched. Blaire had changed course from her contrite attitude the night before and it didn’t suit her well as far as he was concerned. “We’re only trying to help…”
“You can help by leaving me to do my work. I don’t want to be here in the first place, okay? It’s bad enough that I’m on this ship but then I am subjected to you brutish aliens all the time. Get it through your thick heads, I don’t want to be here so I’m working as quickly as I can to come up with a solution to your problem. Then I want to go back home. Got it?”
Kezon’s jaw flexed as he pivoted on his heels and left the Terran to stew in her own angst. Fine, if she didn’t want their care, he’d leave her there to complete her work and then take her back to Earth straight away. His uxormea burned, reminding him that he really didn’t want to see that happen too soon.
“Sir, you seem preoccupied,” Uza said as he took his seat at the controls on the bridge.
“You noticed?” Kezon mumbled. Six fingers flexed into a battle fist as he paced in front of the great window.
“Anything I can do to help?” Uza asked. His eyes flitted to Kezon’s chest momentarily. Kezon brought his arm up, pressing the tunic to him as he shook his head.
“No, this is something that I need to handle myself,” he replied as he quickly left the bridge and Uza behind.
Kezon paused outside the laboratory doors, his heart pounding and the uxormea burning so bright that one could see it through the thick fabric of his tunic. Blaire had seen it, he was certain. Courage was short in supply at the moment, but he mustered what he could anyway and opened the doors, surprising Blaire once again.
Blaire rushed at him, her eyes bright as she spoke excitedly. The change in her countenance delighted him but made him wary all the same.
“I think I did it. I think I’ve come up with something to upload to the cyborgs AI to stop them cold,” she blurted out.
“What?” Kezon wasn’t expecting such a result so soon.
“Yes! I believe I have the very beginning of the virus that will stop the cyborgs. Not only that, it can stop the ones they’ve already turned loose as well. All it takes is a microbe that can infect their biological parts to help the nanobots generate the virus that will render the whole damn army useless. It’s sort of like a meltdown of their circuits. They would be fried, as if lightning had struck them. Oh, you probably don’t know what I mean by lightning. What’s the word for lightning in Hjott language? You know, when the sky produces a storm, and a bolt of electricity strikes? That’s what I mean by this virus, it will strike the circuits in the cyborgs. All circuits and connections within their individual AI systems will go kaput. As a matter of fact, it will be the artificial intelligence that will spread this so quickly. I’m sure they’ll have all of the cyborgs connected to a central control. In fact, they’d be stupid not to,” Blaire continued. Her eyes widened as she spoke.
Kezon listened and smiled and waited for a moment of pause, but the Terran scientist was talking so quickly that he couldn’t get a word in. His heart pounded as the uxormea burned on his chest. He had to have her. He wanted to claim Blaire, even if only in some small way. The primal urge struck hard as he lunged at her, grabbing her shoulders and laying into her lips first. His mouth moved over Blaires and he dared to push his tongue forth, tasting the fruit she had tried at lunch. The woman’s body relaxed while in his embrace and she kissed him back, making his heart soar and his uxormea burn so hot that he thought he might burst into flames. Blaire didn’t resist him, though she struggled somewhat with what was happening, her body tensing and then relaxing. Kezon released her shoulders and slid his arms around her, pulling her close to him. Her arms slowly wrapped around his back, and her hands moved over him as if she enjoyed all that was happening between them. Blaire’s pulse quickened and her heart raced as they melted together. He groaned, wanting her so badly as his body stiffened and his member grew long and hard. Kezon couldn’t stop himself. He didn’t want to stop himself. The scientist’s body reacted to him in a way that he had only dreamed the one in whom he wanted to claim would react. There was not a flicker of anger or dread from her, only welcoming pliability. He moaned as his tongue toyed with Blaire’s and her hands ran up his chest, pausing for a moment over the hot spot over his heart. Kezon’s muscles tensed as she squeezed at his shoulders with just a bit of resistance to his grasp upon her, but he was larger and stronger and could hold her there forever. Blaire th
en squirmed, a muffled sound emanating from her throat. Did she say something? The frenzy took hold and he didn’t have the patience to pause to listen to her. Kezon wanted physical action with her and his body knew it would burst without it.
Suddenly, Blaire shoved back hard and her hand delivered a slap squarely across Kezon’s face, causing him to stagger backwards a little. Stunned, he stepped back further. The surprise of the slap quickly brought back the warrior’s composure, quieting the desire he had felt inside. After reeling from the shock of such a display from the object of his primal urges, Kezon’s face stretched into a large smile. He laughed and peered down at her.
“Why did you slap me?” he asked.
Blaire stood back while breathing hard, her face flushed. For a moment, she said nothing but merely stared him down. He continued laughing as she slapped him again. After a couple of more strikes, Kezon scowled and shook his head. “You know that I’m more powerful than you. No matter how hard your attempts are to injure me, it doesn’t hurt at all,” he told her. Perhaps it was the wrong thing to say to Blaire. She shuddered as her face turned from pink to red.
“You have no right to kiss me. I’m not yours for the taking. Here I was trying to explain to you what I’ve discovered, and how do you react? By attacking me with a kiss. I shouldn’t have expected anything less from a brute warrior alien like yourself. How dare you assume that I wanted to kiss you,” Blaire spat.
The uxormea burned all the more at hearing her indignation. Kezon chuckled again. He couldn’t help it. “My dear Terran, you were kissing back as much as I was kissing you for a good moment or so,” he replied.
“That was a physical reaction to such brutality,” she answered.
“Brutality? I assure you, brutality didn’t come into this equation. This is a purely physical attraction between us, and you felt it as well. I could feel your heart pounding in unison with mine,” Kezon said as he smiled proudly.
“It was pounding out of rage. You assume too much and you certainly have no clue as to how Terrans work.” Her face shone beautifully under the lights in the laboratory, though Blaire held her scowl. It took everything that Kezon had to not grab her and kiss her again.
“Listen, at first I kissed you to shut you up. You were talking so quickly that I couldn't keep up. Remember, to me you speak with a thick accent, so much as you think I do as well.”
“The discovery excited me, Kezon. I’m a scientist, and when I make such discoveries I’m very hyper and talkative. That kiss, though. Yes. No, you shouldn’t have taken the liberty to do that with me. It was just…wrong. I don’t know, Kezon. You drive me crazy and I don’t know how to react to you,” Blaire blurted as she placed her hand on her curvy hip.
Kezon sat down on a stool and looked into her eyes as he smiled. “Please don’t misunderstand, Blaire, I am thrilled that you have found the way to deal with the cyborgs. So, please sit down and give me the details. I am, as your kind says, all ears.” The warrior continued to wait patiently as he crossed his arms and relaxed on the stool. He would hear the scientist out on her discovery, even as his uxormea continued to burn within his chest.
Chapter 8
Blaire
Blaire paced the lab after Kezon left. He’d been so presumptive with the way he had kissed her. How dare he take such liberties with her? And yet, he wasn’t in the slightest taken aback by the slaps she had delivered across his chiseled jawline. He’s incorrigible. The floor clicked under her feet, each step echoing because of the energy she spent going back and forth. How could Kezon kiss her? How could she kiss back the way that she had? Shaking her head, Blaire tried to dismiss it from her mind.
The thrill of discovering the key to the cyborg problem returned as she settled onto a stool and peered through a microscope at a nanobot attaching to some biological matter on the slide. The microscope and the naked eye didn’t lie. No matter how she changed the arrangement of the cells, the AI worked on it and did exactly as she had hoped. It was a career-proud moment. The excitement of the discovery surged through her body, and yet her mind continued to go back to that damned kiss. Ugh. Blaire had kissed an alien. And though she could often be very stubborn about such things, she couldn’t come up with an excuse as to why she enjoyed the kiss so much. It was completely out of character for her to become so frivolous and emotional about anything.
The stool spun when Blaire hopped up from it again. Her body reacted to the jolt of the kiss, burned into her memory not as something disgusting, but as something she wanted to try again. No! That’s not who she was. Blaire was a stickler to keep others at arm’s length. She knew to keep to the task at hand. She mostly lived from one scientific experiment to another, her emotional fulfillment coming from the solutions to the issues she investigated. Dammit, it was a distraction that she didn’t need right now.
The kiss continued to tingle upon her lips long after Kezon left the laboratory. It lingered in her mind, causing her to detail every single moment despite her trying to shove it aside and think of anything else. Emotions that Blaire didn’t know existed within her surfaced and scared the young scientist a bit. Yes, her heart seemed to swell at the thought of Kezon walking through the doors again, but it had taken her completely by surprise and it was totally against everything she had ever allowed. Especially now, of all times, it shouldn’t have happened. Blaire’s heart abandoned her though, as her mind reeled from it. Repulsed? Not really. It seemed to intrigue her more than anything. Emotionally, it was all new, and Blaire wanted more of it, though she hated to admit as much. She wanted more of the brute alien’s hands on her body and more of his long tongue prodding her mouth. She wanted to taste the alien warrior’s full lips as her hands longed to run through his thick, dark hair.
Blaire left the lab, set on heading to her small quarters to rest before continuing her work. Kezon nearly ran into her as they crossed in the corridor.
“Oh, Blaire, excuse me. Are you alright?” Kezon managed a warm smile before continuing, “We are about to pass through another wormhole and I would like you to come to my quarters and we have made it through. I have a sleep chair there that may help you avoid space sickness. It’s hooded, so it induces you into a state of deep relaxation while playing some music. It wouldn’t hurt to try it, anyway.”
Blaire returned the smile. “Thank you. I’m willing to try just about anything to keep from getting sick again. I don’t know that has bothered me so much.”
“I understand. Maybe it’s a Terran thing? I’m not completely certain. Ahlan suggested that you could try the chair,” he told her as he turned to lead the scientist to his room.
Kezon helped her sit down into the chair, which worked so well that Blaire soon grew sleepy once he lowered the hood over her head. The chair reclined and the young woman could soon only see her feet and the light from the room. Once she began to focus on the inside of the hood, she noticed tiny dots of light dancing gracefully before her eyes in tune with the soft alien music playing in her ears. It proved to be a great spot to relax while the ship lurched and shuddered through the motions of traveling through yet another wormhole.
Once the ship stopped vibrating, Blaire removed the hood and looked around Kezon’s room. For a warrior, he kept a very immaculate living space. Finding herself alone in the room, she walked around while looking at his personal items. There were things that were alien to her, but some appeared to be part of a uniform. A knife with a strange carving on both the blade and the holster held her interest for a moment. It vibrated in her hand and Blaire quickly set it back down where she found it. Kezon had five books on the top of a stand with drawers. They were each scrawled in alien language, which was nothing she could understand. Still, Blaire smiled as she fingered the soft binding of one of the books before replacing it.
Suddenly, the ship seemed to shake again, as if going through another wormhole. Before Blaire could return to the chair, she swooned dizzily as nausea washed over her. Oh no, not again! The young scientist stumbled, lo
sing her footing from the dizziness and fell onto Kezon’s bed. The room seemed to swirl with waves of vertigo and nausea. Closing her eyes tightly, she grappled the covers, which seemed to give her some comfort. Blaire kept her eyes closed for a while as she tried to allow the dizziness to pass.
The door to the quarters suddenly slid open and Kezon rushed to her.
“Blaire! Are you alright?”
She struggled to sit up, fearing the nausea still washing over her, but she eventually rose. He perched himself on the bed beside her as Blaire slowly opened her eyes and realized that she didn’t feel so dizzy anymore.
“I was feeling rather sick when I got up from the chair. I’m sorry, I landed on your bed rather than in a heap on the floor,” she said as she laughed a little. Kezon peered down at her with deep concern in his eyes. A sweet smile soon stretched across his handsome face.
“It’s fine. You’re welcome to lie on my bed anytime you feel the need to,” he told her.
“Well, no, I thought we’d finished going through the wormhole and I stood thinking that it was over. I guess it wasn’t,” Blaire replied.
“No, we approached hyper-speed and then gained even more speed before entering the wormhole. It takes a few minutes for the entire process to work out, but it looks as if you’re doing well now. How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine, I’m so sorry,” Blaire said as she shook her head. Kezon was so close to her that she could have lifted her chin and leaned in to taste his lips again. She turned shyly away, not sure how to react. This was so unlike her.
Kezon tenderly reached out and with a finger he lifted her chin. “No need to apologize,” he whispered.
Slowly, he leaned in and Blaire closed the gap between them. The magnetism was so great that she couldn’t refuse him. Their lips met again and this time she welcomed it as her body warmed to his touch. Her arms encircled Kezon’s thick neck as he prodded through her seam, opening her mouth with his tongue. In the delightful moment, her heart nearly pounded out of her chest as she groaned under his attention. It was her first time to willingly kiss a male, let alone an alien, and she enjoyed it. He pulled her to him, his body tensing as they kept kissing. Blaire didn’t want to part from him. She didn’t want it to ever stop. However, her hand wouldn’t meet with his chiseled jaw this time. Kezon drew back slightly, wincing as if waiting for another blow from her hand just as Blaire had delivered earlier.