Alien Caller Read online

  “You okay? You’re not upset?” Like a fool he kept asking the same stupid questions every five minutes, worried that she regretted what had been, when he knew she didn’t, not yet anyway. For now she was like him, still drunk on the pleasure.

  “Will you stop being so silly. I’m more then okay, and I’m not upset at all. I’m far too happy to be upset, and I promise I won’t regret it later. Only that it took so long.” She kept telling him everything he wanted to hear, and it was slowly sinking in. He still knew he’d ask again though.

  “Amen.”

  “I am a little sore though, a good soreness, from muscles very well used, for which I thank you. I hope I’ll be getting to thank you again too.” The look she shot him told him she meant every word. He had much more work to do that evening, when he recovered. He had given her everything his body could and she wasn’t the only one who hurt.

  He smiled. “There’s every chance of that when I recover, though I think I should mention that I’m fairly sore too. But I’m also very grateful for it. That was probably the best workout I’ve ever experienced, and I really enjoyed the exercise!” They both laughed, and yet knew it was also true. Their heart rates still would not return to normal, and sweat had to be wiped away continually.

  Which left him with the other matter that he should have thought about.

  “Umm. We ahh… didn’t use a condom.” He felt guilty, like a teenager caught in the act. Yet he hadn’t even thought of it at the time. Nor he guessed, had Cyrea. She just laughed, a pleasant musical sound he knew he wanted to hear much more of.

  “Now you think about it?” But she wasn’t really upset, just gently laughing at him. Teasing him. “After you’ve had your way with me, you want to talk about safety?” But her arms held him tight, telling him she wasn’t letting him go.

  “Well you didn’t say anything either!” It was all he could think to say, the classic, ‘it’s your fault’ defence being as deeply ingrained in him as it was in all men. She just laughed.

  “No I didn’t. I never even thought about it. But then there’s no need. None of your diseases will affect me, none of ours will bother you. We’re too different. And we can’t have children. We’re not the same species. So unless it’s a fashion thing, let’s not worry about it.” He chuckled softly at the thought, but still he wasn’t sure.

  “You’re certain?”

  “Yes. Long before we came here we tested out all the microbes that could possibly cause us harm, and found out there were none, which was a pleasant surprise. And then we checked that ours wouldn’t bother you either, which they wouldn’t. And to have babies you have to be of the same species, which we clearly aren’t, though we seem to have a lot of things in common. A lot of very wonderful things. This may be the first time I’ve ever done the practical, but there’s no real worry.”

  “Except for one tiny little thing of course.” He looked at her, suddenly worried again as she shot it in.

  “Our feuding, which just occasionally seems to explode into sex. Thank God! If we hadn’t made love just then, one of us would have surely died!” They both laughed some more, a lot more, wondering what they had ever found to feud about in the first place. But secretly they were both hoping and praying it wouldn’t return. In the afterglow things looked rosy, but later? He didn’t want to go back to that.

  “So I’m your first human then?” He quickly changed the subject.

  “Oh hell yes! You’re almost the only human I’ve really met, and none of the others would I ever find remotely attractive. So yes, you’re definitely my first. Besides the others are mostly old. I don’t think they’d survive the foreplay!” They cracked up at that, and the laughter kept coming until the tears flowed. It was such a relief to have finally done it, and not to be at each other’s throats.

  “As far as I know we’re also the first between humans and Leinians ever.” They grinned, pleased at the thought of being the first at anything, and then discovered that they had that in common as well.

  “I can’t really imagine any of the scientists doing this, nor any of the locals. They’re all so … narrow. In fact, I’m not aware that many Leinians have ever mated outside our species. It's not exactly common, especially when you consider the other races in this part of the galaxy. And humans are locked onto a single planet, so it’s difficult to see how you ever could have. We could well be a whole new level of firsts.”

  “Why so rare?” She touched off his curiosity.

  “You haven’t seen the other races!” She started giggling into his chest at the thought. “They look nothing like us. They need different atmospheres, different gravities. In fact of the five major space faring races in this sector, none could live comfortably on any of the other’s worlds. We are all too different. Besides, some of them don’t even seem to have sexes. That’s why we find your world so amazing. We’d never imagined that there could be people so like us anywhere. And now I find that we are even closer then we realized.” She kissed him gently, and for once he didn’t disagree at all.

  Biology lectures from long ago came back to him, as he realized all that she was referring to. It was far more than just the basic body plan, which surely had to be unusual in itself. It was more than even breathing the same air and eating the same food. They made love exactly the same way, with the same genitalia, the same things turned them on, breasts and other sexual stimuli. They even found each other attractive, and that he recalled was often pheromone based. The same scents. Given what she had mentioned of the other races it was a miracle. But then it was also a miracle they hadn’t killed each other first. Which brought him back to one burning issue.

  “Cyrea. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I really don’t want to fight with you anymore. I yield.” He was worried even through his pleasure that she would react badly, but for once there was no stiffening in her eyes, no rejection. She simply smiled.

  “I don’t want to fight you either. In fact I don’t need to anymore. I think maybe this is what I was really after all the time, and you too. But you still can’t yield.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I yield.” And she kissed him passionately, making sure he understood she meant it. He kissed her back just as hard, for the same reason. Neither of them wanted to fight, and neither of them had any reason to anymore. They both understood that like little children all they’d been doing was testing each other. ‘I like you, do you like me?’ Feeling the water, trying desperately to find out if it was safe to swim, or if they’d drown. Finally they had their answer, and swimming season was open.

  “How about we both yield, regularly.”

  “Sounds good to me.” It was another contract, but this time one with absolutely no sort of competition in it. All they had really agreed to was to carry on, as they both wanted. And they both signed it without a moment’s hesitation.

  “You know. If I was still an agent I’d have to report all this. After all I’ve been consorting with a member of another state. Then, once they’d found out the details, they’d sit me down in front of a bunch of psychologists, and start analysing me until I didn’t know my own name. And that would be if you were human. Since you’re not, I suppose, there would have been a few hundred other scientists as well, probing me, taking samples and turning me into a human pin cushion. After them, if it ever got out, well the press would be a nightmare, and I’d be on every talk back show for the next thousand years. Just think; the first human being to have sex with an alien. I really don’t want to ever have to tell this story to any living soul on my world.” Which was his roundabout way of assuring her that he really didn’t want to tell his people about hers, if he didn’t absolutely have to.

  “You think you’ve got it bad? I’m not planning on telling my people either. They’d write it up for their scientific papers, and we’d be all over every news programme for months. I can see the headlines now. ‘Wild bald savage ravishes security officer’. Or how about ‘Officer gets her man’.” She
shuddered, half seriously and they both laughed.

  “I’m not bald!” But then again he wasn’t furry either, which was what she meant. Cyrea ignored him.

  “Then they’d start prying, hunting for video of it. We’d be spied upon day and night. And once they had it we’d be in full 3D for the whole universe to watch, every night at the dinner table. They’d have learned panel discussions about every tiny piece of the act, and probably game shows too!”

  But they laughed too soon as David suddenly remembered what he should have thought about from the beginning. That he was sure his house was bugged, even if he hadn’t found any listening devices. Quietly, he whispered it too her, not wanting to upset her but knowing she needed to know. He was rewarded with a groan.

  “Shit! I hadn’t thought of that. I thought Alice was just reacting to the mess, but you’re right. She did talk about us rolling around on the floor. She knew too much, and that means they’ve been naughty scientists.” That was something he hadn’t considered. That her people’s scientists might not be allowed to bug him. Cyrea saw his expression and explained.

  “Science parties are only supposed to carry equipment suitable for monitoring the larger populations. Spying on individuals inside their homes is forbidden. That applies to our people and to yours.”

  “But given the situation, I’d guess they might have made an exception in your case. After all, you are both in military intelligence and living in the region. You were a serious threat.” Which made him feel both good and bad. It was pleasing to find he’d been taken seriously, especially after finding out how badly he’d been deceived for more than three years, but he also found he didn’t want them to fear him. From what little he knew of them, they were nice people.

  Then another thought hit him, as he remembered the way Alice had made them sit so close together, and her parting comments. Something about a rematch, and seeing who won. At the time he’d thought she was just stirring, just being Alice. But now, something about it stank.

  “You think they could have done more than watched? That they might have known and nudged us in this direction?” On the one hand he could see that the comments might have been innocent though cheeky, and on the other he realized they were a part of what had brought them back together. Alice had suggested a rematch, and she had made it a competition, even if they were too besotted to understand that at the time. Then too she had made it more blatant, making them sit next to each other, touching, and telling them how much they had in common.

  Cyrea thought about it for a few moments, and then swore again.

  “When did you learn to swear?” The question struck him out of the blue as he realized she’d been swearing like any Earth woman, and without an accent.

  “On Sunday. Colloquialisms were in my language tape. You like?”

  “Bloody useful tool.” Learning languages from a tape. It sounded on the one hand quite freaky, but on the other hand it would have been damn convenient. He was considered almost a polyglot, speaking thirteen languages well including most of the major Slavic and Asian languages, but it took him months to get to even conversational levels. Cyrea had learned U.S. English in three weeks, and now spoke with a genuine cultured American accent. To make it more incredible it was a completely alien language for her, with no common derivatives to any other languages she might speak.

  “I think you might be right, about the nudging that is. That first time we fought, you liked it. I felt you. And so did I.” If that wasn’t confession he didn’t know what was. He kissed her again for good measure.

  “The second time I liked it even more, and the third, well it was just fantastic.” The smile returned to her face, and he knew she was agreeing with him.

  “I know. The device would have detected our desires. It would have analysed the hormones we gave off, measured the stress in our voices, the sweat on our flesh, the opening and closing of blood vessels, pupil dilations, and reported all that back immediately. By the time Alice entered the room she could already have known that we were aroused, even when we didn’t.”

  “I knew.”

  “So did I, but I wasn’t going to admit that to you or me. Three days on a planet and I’m already lusting after the natives. That wouldn’t look good on my next evaluation.” He kissed her some more, knowing exactly what she meant. They had more in common then they’d realized. But he could also see the funny side as well.

  “Three weeks and you’re bedding them!” She hushed him, not wanting to even think about it but it didn’t stop him laughing some more. Or her.

  “So are you. Anyway when I returned, they should have been telling me to stay away from you, and they did suggest it, though quietly. Though now that I think about it, too quietly. Instead they just kept telling me you were a good officer, that you had principles, and that you would keep your word. All the things that I would like in a mate.”

  “Alice said much the same to me about you. She said you were just hurt and scared, and that underneath all that anger you were a good egg, sweet and caring, but lonely and a long way from home.” The things that would make me want to comfort you, and try to patch up our differences, - and make me want to bed you.” His hindsight at least was 20/20.

  “Alice is also the one who suggested I should get to know you. And that I should join you on your swim. She said you were a fitness fanatic like me, and that maybe we’d find a lot of other things in common. And Dr. Sam suggested that if I kept close to you, you might learn to trust us.” It was starting to sound more and more suspicious, but they still needed something to seal the case.

  “Um. Where did you get the bikini from?” If there was one thing David knew, it was that her tiny bikini had caused him more confusion and embarrassment than any other piece of clothing in creation.

  “Alice. It was her grand-daughter’s, and she said it was what you’d expect me to wear swimming.” He groaned.

  “Alice doesn’t have a grand-daughter old enough to wear it, and if she did I’m damned sure she wouldn’t let her wear a skimpy little thing like that. Not in public. Besides, it wouldn’t fit!” In fact he knew of no woman who could fill out the costume in the way that Cyrea did.

  “So…”

  “So she asked you to wear one of the most scandalous and revealing costumes ever designed, simply so you could drive me nuts. Though I have to admit, it worked. The first day you wore it my eyes must have nearly popped out of my head. Every day thereafter was worse.”

  “Or better.”

  “Or better.” He laughed. “I loved watching you in the water, and even more getting in and out. But because we were feuding, I had to try and deny it. But now I don’t have to, and I can honestly tell you that that costume cost me endless hours of turmoil, kept me awake at nights and completely destroyed my ability to think rationally around you.”

  “So I shouldn’t wear it any more?” She wasn’t really asking, just teasing him. The smile on her face was almost wider than her head.

  “Hell no! You should wear it all day and all night when I’m around, just never, ever in public, or every man in a thousand miles will be staring at you with their tongues hanging out and I’ll have to beat them all senseless!” They both laughed, enjoying their healthy desires.

  “You don’t have to worry about that. I promise I’ll only wear it for you, as long as you promise to keep enjoying the view.”

  “Deal. That’s not likely to change.” Which was only the truth.

  “Good. Though I would have wished for a less contrived introduction, I’ll be happy with that. Very happy.” For the longest while they just smiled like imbeciles at each other, too wrapped up in the emotion to care. But finally some logic returned to them.

  “You know we owe them a big thank you, as well as a kick in their more sensitive parts. I mean they may be manipulative, scheming little perverts, but this is still wonderful.” Together they smelled the rat, and it stank. They knew that they had been set up. Set up from start to finish. And yet if they had
n’t been, maybe they wouldn’t be here now. The question was what to do about it.