Ark: A Scifi Alien Romance (5 page)

“Of course, of course, it has been too long since we parted.” The older one looked at me, then must have realized he hadn’t introduced himself or his companion. He turned to me and smiled. “I am Admiral Kaalax of the Kreossian Empire. Who might you be?”

I looked down and reached out my hand, momentarily scared that Admiral Kaalax would crush it in his, but his grip was much lighter with me, evidently learning from his recent experience with Fuller and calibrating appropriately. “Melissa Crane, Ambassador Fuller’s assistant.”

“It is good to meet you.” The Admiral let my hand go and leaned to his right, indicating the gorgeous young man-like alien next to him. “This is my second in command, Commander Ark.”

The man the Admiral had referred to as Ark stepped forward and held out his hand, even more uncomfortably than the Admiral had. His eyes, I noticed, had not left me since the door had opened.

“Well met,” was all Ark said. I closed my eyes as they shook hands, just after I watched my hand enveloped by his. The touch of our skin made me almost jump; it was as if there was an electrical charge that passed between us in that moment.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Commander Ark.” The named sounded almost funny at first, but just looking at this man, I knew there wasn’t much mirth to him. He looked like a cold man, a man who knew how to get things done when the moment called for them.

He was tall, at least 2 meters tall, and broad shouldered to an extent that I hadn’t seen on even the biggest of athletes back on Earth. The bright line markings that criss-crossed his body, peeking out from his sparse uniform pulsed a dark blue, but seemed to turn red as I looked at him more.

His skin was naturally tanned but otherwise smooth and free of hair. His face carried a wide jaw, large eyes, and a mouth that I couldn’t help but want to kiss. His eyes were coal black, and the long hair atop his head matched it in almost absorbing all the light around it.

Commander Ark was breathtakingly gorgeous, and the glow in his eye suggested to me that he was all too aware of his allure. It was impossible for me to know what he thought of me, but if I had to hazard a guess on pain of death, it would be that he was just this side of dismissive, mixed with a little bit intrigued.

I was more intrigued than I had ever been by a man, but I looked down as I took my place next to Fuller again, just behind him, remembering that despite the schoolgirl lust I was already fighting a losing battle against over Ark, there was an important job to do during this meeting.

Kaalax watched the exchange between Ark and me with a smile on his face before turning back to Fuller. “Well, Fuller, shall we get this conference started?”

Fuller smiled. “We both know the conference itself doesn’t begin till tomorrow, Kaalax. Or are you in a rush? Got another species to meet?”

Kaalax grinned back. “Of course I know that, old friend. But today, we can surely eat and catch up? We must have time to do something fun on missions like these.” He spoke as if meeting alien cultures was something he did on the weekends, for fun, and not the momentous, life-altering thing that one hoped to do even once in a lifetime.

“That we can certainly accommodate, but please, nothing as debauched as last time.” Fuller laughed, rubbing his stomach again. I had never seen him so jovial - this was a side of him Fuller kept locked deep inside. “You must remember, Kaalax, I’m not the young man I used to be.”

“Nor am I, but I can still certainly eat my share.” Kaalax pointed to his own stomach, which I found hilarious, because he looked to be in incredibly good shape, especially for a man who considered himself old and past his prime.

Maybe every Kreossian man looked like that? What must their women look like? If they were similarly all in great shape, how did they take breaks from all the sex they must have long enough to create an empire?

“Then we should be alright.” Fuller stepped back, pointing behind him toward the station’s dining room. “Shall we, then?”

“Lead on, lead on.” Fuller walked toward the dining room and Kaalax followed him just behind. I found myself walking beside Ark, who followed just behind Kaalax. It was strange being next to someone so tall. I was by no means short, but Ark just towered over me. It was like standing next to a basketball player.

Ark said nothing as we followed the two leaders to the dining room, and I didn’t know what to say to break the silence. The two men in front were blissfully in their own world, catching up like old friends did, which was strange, because to my knowledge they had only met once before, and that was 50 years ago. Not too easy to keep a friendship alive over that distance of time and space, but these two definitely seemed to make it work.

Ark, though, was different. The way he looked, the vibe he gave off, suggested to me that he really would rather have been anywhere else than on the station with the 3 of them. Why had he volunteered for a mission like this if he was going to act so sullenly?

As we walked, I breathed in deep, taking in his musky aroma. It tickled my throat, the way vanilla and sandalwood sometimes did, both smells I adored. Ark’s scent was tinged with something else, though, that I couldn’t put my finger on. It smelled strong and obstinate.

The dining room aboard the station was separated into two parts - a main room with the food preparation machines and two tables and chairs, and a private dining room off to one side.

As soon as Fuller touched the keypad and opened the door, the lights came on and the food preparation machines whirred to life, giving the room a very low background noise. As I knew, the system was prepared to serve delicacies from both Earth and various parts of the Kreossian Empire. Exactly how the preparation machines worked was beyond my technical expertise, but it probably worked similarly to the ones people now used on Earth.

The four people got their food and stood in front of the tables, like high schoolers, trying to figure out where to sit. Before too long, though, Kaalax spoke. “Fuller and I will use the private dining room. We have much to catch up on, the reminiscing of old men, things neither of you would find very exciting.”

Ark gave Kaalax a serious look, one that cried out to me for him not to be left behind, but Kaalax ignored him. “You two eat out here.” He smiled. “Get to know each other! We’ll be here a few days, at least.” He clapped Fuller on the back with his free hand. Fuller smiled at me, nodded at Ark, and followed Kaalax into the private dining room, shutting the door behind them.

So now I found myself all alone with the sexiest alien man I had ever seen. Of course, he was also the second alien man I had ever seen, so there was little competition in that regard, but, I had to admit, he also put every human man to shame too.

Too bad he clearly had such a bad attitude. I could think of worse ways to spend the next few days floating through space.

Ark picked one of the tables and sat down, looking down at his food.

“May I sit with you?” I asked, and then immediately caught myself. There was no one else in the room. In fact, there was no one else, Kaalax and Fuller aside, within millions of miles. But there was also a second table. I could eat by myself.

Ark cocked an eye at me, leaning his head over. “Sit.”

I set my plate down on the table before sitting, next to Ark instead of the standard across from him. Ark seemed to take no notice; he was more interested in his food. I had selected meat ravioli, one of my favorite comfort meals from back home.
 

Sure it was no good for any sort of diet beyond ‘the cheese and pasta diet,’ but it was also delicious, and after being away from Earth for a week already, I had earned some deliciousness.

I looked at Ark’s plate, the one he was so interested in. On it was a vaguely green…mush, if you could call it that. “What’s that you got there?” I asked, brightly, trying to start the conversation.

Ark continued looking at his food as he picked at it with something like a spoon. “It is a nutritional supplement. Number 23, I think.”

“Your people number their foods?” I tried not to sound too snarky at that, but it was almost hilarious.

Ark eyed her. “Some of them, yes.”

“How many do you have?”

Back to focusing on his food. “Nutritional supplements? Hundreds.”

“Do they all taste the same?”

“Of course not, that would be stupid.”

“Do you ever forget which ones you like and which ones you can’t stand?”

Ark glanced at me sharply. “No. I never forget.”

I decided that was a good time to focus on my own meal for a bit, since Ark obviously did not want to talk to me.

We ate in silence for a minute. “And what is that disgusting looking thing you have there? A dead carcass of some kind?”

I nearly choked on my food as I laughed, watching Ark’s stony face look back at me. “This is ravioli. It’s pasta with meat and cheese inside.”

“I only understand a few of those words. It sounds revolting.”
 

“It’s delicious, amazing comfort food. Wanna try some?”

“No.”

“Suit yourself.”

We continued eating.

“Tell me about yourself, Ark.”

Ark stopped eating long enough to stare me down. “I am a warrior.”

“Is that all?” I knew putting it that way was a mistake the moment the words came out of my mouth, but despite all the technological advances humanity had discovered through the Kreossians’ help over the last 50 years, we had not solved the mystery of time travel quite yet.

Ark bristled. “A warrior is the highest honor a Kreossian can achieve. It is what our society most prizes. Do you not have warriors on your planet?”

“We do, sure, but we haven’t really needed them nearly as much as we used to, not since, well, not since Ambassador Fuller met Admiral Kaalax.” I looked toward the door behind which the two old friends ate.

Ark’s eyes gleamed. “So your people have taken our existence and our presence as reasons to become weak, then.”

“Hold on, just a minute, that is not at all what I said!”

“It sounds like what you said.” Ark’s tone was factual, even, and without malice.
 

I wasn’t about to let that go so easily. “We are not weak, Ark, in fact we’ve come a long way since first contact.”

Ark leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms under his massive chest, and my eyes almost bugged out at his huge muscles, covered in those gleaming tattoo-like colors. “Judging by your taste in food I find that hard to believe.”

“Just because we don’t eat things named with numbers?!”

Ark smiled. “Bear in mind, Melissa,” I stiffened with a mixture of lust and incredulity at the way Ark made my name sound, “we are eating nearly the same thing, you and I.”

I looked down at Nutritional Supplement 23, a pile of goo on Ark’s plate, then back at my ravioli. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Ark laughed. “Do you think the station has whatever this ‘cheese’ or ‘pasta’ you mentioned aboard? The food preparation machines are adept at making food taste like whatever you want, but in reality you are also eating a numbered nutritional supplement.”

He reached over and grabbed a ravioli from my plate. I tapped him on the wrist, but he got away with one. I noticed the way his skin felt on mine and wanted more of it, but Ark pulled back, giving the ravioli between his fingers a suspicious look before tossing it into his mouth.

He grimaced while chewing, before speaking again. “Nutritional Supplement 46, I believe. Not a favorite of mine.” He stared back at me. “I prefer the 47.”

I looked down at my plate, suddenly no longer hungry. Of course Ark was correct. The plans for the station didn’t include boxes of cheese and pasta. The food preparation machines took component nutrients and synthesized them together.
 

Ark’s way of eating just cut out the middleman and got right to the point. “In a way,” she said, “that’s refreshing. You don’t waste time with dressing up food.”

“There are more important things for a warrior to deal with.”

“But…what about the pageantry of it all? The enjoyment of food, sitting down to a nice meal with your friends, or…a loved one?” I didn’t mean to make that last part so much like a question with a purpose, but I immediately felt that was how it came out.

Ark stared at me, his eyes narrowing, a grimace on his face. “Pardon me, I didn’t mean it to sound like that.” I looked away, suddenly unable to meet Ark’s withering stare. “I don’t even know if your species experiences love,” I muttered almost to myself, under my breath.

Ark leaned forward. “Love is universal, human. No species in the known galaxy experiences it as passionately and as powerfully as the Kreossians. Do not make the mistake of forgetting that.” There was no humor in his tone, nothing to suggest Ark was being lighthearted. He clearly meant business.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to presume…”

“That is understandable, you do not know our ways.”

I then realized I had asked the question that way because O wanted to know what Ark’s relationship status was, and that almost made me laugh out loud, but I managed to hold myself in check just at the last moment. I blushed, and quickly looked down to try and hide my face just as I noticed Ark’s eyebrows raise in question. “Tell me about how your species loves, Ark. You make it sound so all-encompassing.”

Ark nodded. “That it is, human. Tell me about your species’ ideas of love first.”

I opened my mouth a couple times and closed it before I found the right words to say. “We’ve changed a lot in the last few decades.”

Ark nodded again, unsurprised. “The meeting with us changed your planet. First contact always does.” He stared me down. “It changed how you love?”

“Yes, yes it did. The upheaval that the knowledge of life on other worlds brought, well, they accelerated how our society was already changing. People now don’t really form long term bonds very often.”

“What do they do instead?”

“Short term relationships, mostly. Meet someone interesting, sleep with them, be with them for a short time, and then move onto the next person.”

Ark’s face had taken on a mask of something approaching anger. “It is like this all over your world?”