Resident Alien: Department of Homeworld Security, Book 2 (5 page)

Chapter Nine

It was the end for him. Brendan was sure of it. He had found his “one and only” and she was from another planet.

The reality of it hit him as he took in the wonder on her face, as he felt the ease in his heart. He’d found what he had been looking for, but on his homeworld after all.

“That was incredible,” she said.

“You aren’t kidding.” He felt his cock slide from her body and shifted his weight so he could lie next to her.

Kira rose on her elbow so that they were nose-to-nose. She grinned broadly. “Do you think we could do it again?”

Laughing, he said, “Are you trying to kill me?”

“What? Of course not. It can’t really hurt you, can it?”

She was so distressed, but it only made him laugh harder. “I’m fine. I just need to rest for a little while. And then you can have your way with me all you want.”

Her smile returned. “I like the sound of that. I had a few ideas…”

Time couldn’t pass quickly enough. Damn biological limitations. He grabbed a tissue to clean himself up and tossed everything in the trashcan under the bedside table.

“Do you mind if I ask you some of my questions now? Might help us fill the time while we wait.”

“Okay.”

She pulled the pillow under her chin and wrapped her arms around it, lying on her stomach. Her body was putting off so much heat. He snuggled next to her, propping himself up on one elbow while he draped his other arm over her back.

“The most obvious one is, where are you from?”

“Sadr-4.”

“Really? That’s close.”

“The galaxy is much more heavily populated than you might think.”

“How come you’re the only one who responded to my signal then?”

Her smile faded and she looked away. “Because I was intercepting it. That’s part of my job. Well,
was
part of my job.”

“That was going to be my next question. I want to know more about that listening station and what you were doing on it.”

“Mostly screening broadcasts for evidence that Earthlings might be figuring out ways to prove that alien intelligence is real. The Coalition doesn’t think that Earth is ready for that knowledge.”

“Why do they get to decide?”

“Because they’re the ones with the fleets of starships.”

His stomach started to ache again. He did not like the idea of powerful aliens making decisions for his homeworld without even letting them know a question had been asked.

Was Earth ready? Okay, probably not. But the Coalition still should have asked…somebody.

“You’re upset,” she said.

“Disturbed is a better word for it. And disappointed. I thought aliens intelligent enough to be capable of interstellar travel would be a little more advanced when it came to politics.”

He moved on to his next question, hoping to lighten the mood.

“How is it that we’re so alike? You said your people are genetically engineered. Did they design you to fit in on Earth in case you had to interact with us?”

She laughed and shook her head. “No, everyone from Sadr-4 is like me—like you. Earth was populated by a colony ship that crashed here millennia ago. They took over from the evolving hominids, but lost touch with their history when their ship was destroyed.”

What the hell?
He
was an alien?

“That’s…going to take me a while to wrap my head around.” He searched for another question while that knowledge sank in. “You say you’re all genetically engineered, though. Why haven’t you made more changes to…the design, for lack of a better word?”

She looked away, her mouth tightening into a line.

Way to flatter her, Brendan
.

“I mean, you are amazing, but—”

She snorted and rolled her eyes. And not in a, “Oh, go on then,” manner. She really didn’t believe him.

“Seriously, you’re the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.”

“You don’t have to say that.” Her voice was angry and a little hurt.

“I mean it.”

She glanced back at him, expression guarded, but a bit of hope seeping in. “We didn’t change the design because it works for us. What’s been changing is our technology and the level of control we have over the expression of our DNA.”

“That explains why you’re so—”

“Stop,” she said, sitting up and pulling the quilt around her body tightly. “Just stop, okay?”

He sat up next to her, wondering what had offended her so badly. Maybe the Coalition had a different view of what was beautiful. He had seen something like that on an episode of
The Twilight Zone
.

“I’m sorry I upset you,” he said. “But I won’t take back what I said. I do think you’re beautiful.”

She let out a deep sigh and rested her head against her hand. “I’m not used to hearing that sort of thing.”

“Maybe you should get used to it. Because I think you’re pretty great.”

She let out a little laugh and shook her head. “I don’t know how to take compliments. I’ve never been anything but average.”

“If you’re average, I don’t want to see what passes for gorgeous among your people. My head might explode.”

All that earned him was a tiny laugh. She closed her eyes and let out a soft sigh, leaning her head against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her.

After a long pause, she said, “It isn’t just that I’m average.”

He waited for her to continue. He could feel the tension in her body and didn’t want to push.

“Sometimes the engineering goes wrong. The system glitches. That’s what happened to me—what I am. A glitch.”

She turned her head away. He shifted so that he could reach up and cup her chin, making them face again. Her eyes were glassy. It made him want to punch someone.

“You are not a glitch. You hear me? You’re not a mistake.”

A tear managed to escape her lashes and roll down her cheek. It was too much. He leaned forward and kissed her. He let the kiss build slowly, waiting till she relaxed—till she melted against him—to deepen it. He slid his tongue into her mouth, keeping his strokes gentle. When she pulled back, she sniffed and wiped her face dry.

“Thank you,” she said.

“There’s no need to thank me.” What the hell kind of society did she come from?

“All of my test scores are average at best. That’s why they installed a nanNet in me and assigned me to be an observer.” She pressed herself against his chest. “I didn’t really mind, though. I figured at least that way I could be useful.”

“What’s a nanNet?”

“It’s a network of nanites that live in my brain. They help me store and parse through the data I collect.”

“Hang on. They put a hard drive in your brain to make you more useful to society?”

Kira shrugged.

“That is so messed up,” he said.

The irony of it killed him. She had done this so that she would feel more a part of her society, but from what he could see it had only served to isolate her.

“If someone’s not born a rocket scientist or acrobat—that doesn’t mean they have nothing to contribute,” he said.

Kira was staring at him. He hoped he was getting through to her.

“We do things differently.” Her voice was just above a whisper.

“Yeah. I see that. What about the voices of dissent?”

“Dissent?”

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. With everything she had told him—the drugs, the genetic engineering, making sure Earth didn’t find out aliens existed—her society seemed all about control.

“Voices of dissent. The people who disagree. Who want to change society.”

“There are no dissenters.”

“There are
always
dissenters. How many people did you say are in the Coalition?”

“Septillions.”

“And you think not one of them has a different idea of how things should be done?” When she didn’t respond, Brendan went on. “Those are the voices you should be listening for.”

Chapter Ten

“The only people I know of who oppose the Coalition are the Tau Ceti. And the last time I heard their voices, I blew up my listening station to avoid their interrogation tactics.”

Kira didn’t like much of what Brendan was saying. Primarily because it carried truth. But there was more going on than he was aware of.

“You have my complete attention,” he said.

“The Tau Ceti joined the Coalition a few hundred years ago, which isn’t long at all. It happened fast. Their homeworld is a swamp and has a peculiar electrical field that threw off our scanners. By the time we figured out that they were capable of extra-solar travel, it was too late to keep them pinned into their system.”

“Why would the Coalition even want to do that?”

“Among other reasons, the Tau Ceti are cannibals.”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess that’s a good reason. No wonder my soylent green joke fell flat.”

He was trying to ease the tension of the conversation, but she couldn’t join him. She knew way too much about the Tau Ceti.

“Wait, they weren’t going to…” His smile faded. “They wouldn’t have—”

“They say they’ve stopped eating sentients, but there are still incidents. And after interrogating me, they would have needed some way to get rid of my body.”

“Okay. Not liking the Tau Ceti. Why were they after you?”

“The only thing they could have been after is information. That’s all the listening station had.”

“Couldn’t they have just grabbed it from the computers instead of interrogating you?”

“Possibly. My nanites were synched with the station, so they might have wanted to make sure all the data was destroyed. Whatever they were looking for, the only remaining copy is in my head.”

“No wonder you don’t want to be found. If tech is easier for them to find, won’t your nanites be a problem?”

“Don’t worry, they’re powered down currently.” Kira intended to keep them that way for as long as possible. “But you’re right—even their tech signature would make me easier to locate with scans. I was able to grab the medkit because the tech inside is off. The only other contents are a few doses of
Balance
.”

“That drug the Coalition uses to control people.”

“They’re not controlling citizens. It just helps people be happy.”

“Tomato, tomah-toh.”

“What?”

“Forget it.” He shook his head again. “Why doesn’t your super-friendly government use
Balance
on the Tau Ceti?”

“It doesn’t work on them. Well, it works
too well
. The Tau Ceti started out as amphibian humanoids.
Balance
is applied topically. The Tau Ceti’s skin somehow amplifies the chemicals and knocks them out.”

“Good to know.”

This would be a lot for anyone to absorb. He was handling it pretty well, so far. He shook his head, then leaned forward and kissed her. Slow, deep and wet.

When he pulled back, she asked, “What was that for?”

“You looked like you needed it. I know I sure did.”

She smiled and leaned against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

“At least we don’t have to worry about any space frogs running around on Earth,” he said. “I imagine they’d really stand out in a crowd.”

“Actually, one of the first things they did after joining the Coalition was to begin their own genetic engineering program to make them look more like us.”

“I’m over here reaching for peace of mind, and you’re just plucking it away.”

“Sorry.”

He was quiet for a long time. Then he asked the question she was dreading, that she hadn’t even let herself think.

“Are they a threat to Earth?”

She didn’t answer. He put his hands on her arms and shifted so he could look into her eyes.

“Kira, are they a threat?”

She couldn’t lie to him. She wouldn’t.

“I don’t know.”

“They want something on Earth,” he said. “Otherwise, they wouldn’t be here.”

She wanted to argue the point, but anything she said would be grasping at straws. He was right.

“What’s the Coalition doing to stop them?”

Another dreaded question.

“They don’t know the Tau Ceti are involved.”

He rose on his knees, pulling away from her.

“Yet,” she said. “They don’t know yet. I’m sure when they scan the debris field—”

“Kira, this is my planet we’re talking about. My home. Everyone I love is here.” He sighed and shook his head. “Do people in the Coalition even still do that? Love each other? Or is there a drug for that too?”

She understood where the hurt was coming from, but his words still stung.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

“I love you.”

His gaze shot to hers. She smiled and reached for his hand.

“We still know how to do that at least,” she said. “Love each other. We call it pair-bonding. It isn’t always about love, but we still feel the urge to partner with others.”

“This is hard to process. I mean, we could be having a translation issue. That word could mean something different to—”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, let her lips linger on his. Rising onto her knees, she deepened the kiss, shifted her hand to gently trace her fingertips across his cheek and down his chest.

She paused long enough to say, “There’s no mistaking this. I love you.”

Kissing him again, she let her body talk for her. She trailed her fingers down his chest, then pushed him back onto the bed. He rested his hands on her hips. She could feel his tension.

Of course he was distracted. There was so much going on, so many new things he was processing. She felt it too. But they would sort everything out. Probably sooner than she wanted.

They needed to know what the Tau Ceti were after—what information was important enough to get her listening station boarded. To sift through the data in her final report, she would have to turn on her nanites. The danger that would put them in would be deadly and immediate. And if their time together was going to be that limited, she wanted to explore everything she could first.

She slid down his body, kissing his chest and stomach along the way. His cock had stiffened again. She wrapped her fingers around it and squeezed, simulating what her core had done earlier.

“Kira…”

She didn’t want to start talking again. Not before experiencing this.

She wrapped her lips around him.

Brendan gasped. She lightened her grip with her hand while tightening her mouth, taking him in deeper. She could feel so many things. His heart pulsing through his cock, his body tensing. She brushed her fingertips along his length, then down over his sac. His back arched. The change was subtle, but she felt it.

Movement, friction, pressure. Heat and wetness. She swirled her tongue around his crown before tightening her lips and sliding her mouth along his cock. As she gently ran her nails over his sac, she increased her pace.

“Kira…”

His hips started to move—rising to meet her, synchronizing their movements. It was incredibly intimate, witnessing his reaction so closely. A thrumming pulse was building in him. She could feel it.

“Stop!”

He pulled her head away. Why had he stopped her? Was she doing something wrong?

“Condom,” he said.

“What?”

He grabbed her arms and flipped her onto her back. For a moment, she thought he might just fall on top of her, but he held himself back. Instead, he scrambled for the drawer at their bedside and pulled out another of the metal packets. His hands were shaking.

She took it from him and smiled. He put his hands on his hips. His strong thighs were spread between her legs, his cock thrusting toward her. Maybe she’d never know what it was like to take him that way. But she’d had enough. And if this was their last chance to couple—to make love—she wanted to feel him inside her again.

She opened the wrapper, then placed the circle of transparent material on his crown. She rolled it down slowly, glancing at him as she did. He bit his lips. His control must be reaching a breaking point. When he was ready, she started to lie back, but he stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

“No, this time it’s all about you.”