Chosen by the Alien Above Part 5: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance Serial (2 page)

He grabbed the beast’s body and pushed away only to find the effort pulled harder at his throat. Made the surface wound bite deeper.

If he shoved with all his might, his own effort would tear his throat out and end his host’s life. And end his own at the same time. He reflected on the thought matrix that decided the AI’s fate.

Yes. He needed to deactivate this bothersome creature.

Just as he was about to manipulate the pattern to initiate the task, the female appeared above him, standing by his feet. She stepped between his legs.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” she yelled.

Rama would not have normally responded, but the pain signal from the metal fangs in his throat combined with the necessarily weak hold on the host caused a ripple to emerge. The ripple crested as an angry wave.
 

A human question him?

Was it proper for a pathetic biological mating machine to question an organized consciousness that had lived far longer than her entire species had existed?

His weakened state angered him. It was the human that was weak and that vibration washed over him. Cold fury whipped his tongue into operation.

“Wretched human, I will seed you first. In time, you will all become hosts. Humans will serve their purpose and then pass into extinction.”

The weak female snarled at him. She lifted her foot behind her and powered it forward in a sweeping arc. The bridge of her foot impacted the vulnerable area between his legs. A supernova of pain exploded in his thoughts.

The amplitude was too high. His grip on the host too loose. He saw his eyes flare in the reflections of hers. He scrambled to gather the tethers of control even as they strained and tore apart. He could not let the host retake control.

He fell faster toward the void. He stretched in one last frenzied attempt to resurface.

The discordant jangle of overwhelming pain slapped him aside.

He partitioned and integrated the simplest shard into the station’s mainframe. Disgusted with himself, Rama descended into darkness.

He vowed to punish this female the instant he resurfaced. Her biological perfection as a Seeding host denied him the possibility of ending her pitiful life.
 

But she could be made to pay in other ways.

I stood there with my leg reared back in case another blow to the nuts was required. My stomach was flopping around like a fish on the shore. The guttural crunching sound his body made upon impact sickened me. Vomiting was not out of the question.

Puke or not, I’d rack him again if I had to.

The tight tension in Noah's muscles melted away. He slumped to the floor unconscious. I’d never racked anyone in the nuts before. I felt horrible about for a number of reasons, but it was reassuring as hell to see how effective it was. The cheesy college self-defense classes weren’t all bunk. Eighty percent of the moves ended with kicking your assailant in the nuts. I could see why now.

My assailant still didn’t register. Not him. Not Noah.

Nobody fucked me without my consent. Not even the man I wanted to fuck most.

Astro released Noah’s throat and whimpered like a starving stray. The metallic squeal made it a particularly pathetic plea. She gently stepped off Noah’s chest and curled up by his side. She edged her shiny muzzle under his unmoving hand, and nudged it up, begging for comfort.

You couldn't separate a man and his dogbot. I certainly wasn't going to try. Ragged wounds in Noah's throat spilled blood onto the deck. The blood barely pooled before the surface shimmered and it melted away.

I stood frozen in shock. Of what had happened. Of what was happening. It made no sense. Why would Noah want to take me like that? Why would Astro attack her master to stop him? Was she that jealous? Whatever she was, I was grateful.

Everybody deserves a second chance. Astro more than most after saving me. I knelt down to pet her, wondering when she changed her mind about me.

She jerked her head and her luminous eyes flared crimson.

GRREAARRRAAHHH.

I jumped back.

“My bad,” I said. “We're still not cool. I get it.”

I returned my attention to Noah's unmoving form. The wounds in his throat had grown smaller. One gash stitched itself together and healed to smooth skin.

What the hell?

Why was it on my first night in space everything had to go bat shit crazy? If this was an example of your average weekly space emergency, you could count me out.

In another minute, the remaining tears in Noah's neck healed themselves. The floor shivered to solidity. The surface clean as ever.

It was impossible. Nobody healed like that. Either I was still in the dream or I had awakened into a nightmare.

What did Cosmo say? He was saying something. Granted, his words weren't the focus of my attention but it felt like something important.

“Cosmo?”

“Yes, Ms. Gabarro?”

“What did you say earlier?”

“I apologize, Ms. Gabarro. I attempted to inform Noah that the ice cream wasn't suitable for optimal consumption.”

Lord, please strike this imbecile between the hard disks!

“Not the fucking ice cream,Cosmo! Too far back. I'm talking about just now. A few minutes ago. Repeat what you said then.”

I swore if he said some inane thing like if I snored in my sleep—I knew I sometimes did—I would personally blow this whole friggin station to smithereens.

“Alien entity, you do not have consent to exercise corporeal control of the consciousness that is Noah Sinclair. I insist you release him immediately.”

I considered for a moment and ended up no wiser for it.

“Cosmo, what am I missing?”

“There is an 87.462% probability that you miss Earth and the familiarity of the your environment there.”

A terminator-esque future was seriously nothing we needed to worry about.

I was about to try to rephrase the question when Noah's body moved. It was strange to think of it in those terms, as
his body
moved instead of
he
moved. But the neon inferno in his eyes combined with what I’d just heard made it entirely appropriate.

Something didn’t fit. I didn’t know if the thing moving before me
was
Noah.

His hand raised and pinched the bridge of his nose. His eyes clamped tighter like he didn’t want to wake up.

I knew any second that inhuman, electric yellow would find me again. Would attack me again. I bent my knees and got ready to crack him again if it was needed.

GRREAARRRAAHHH.

Oh no! Astro sensed danger. Sensed the alien or whatever taking over Noah's body. Noah's hand dropped and his eyes opened.

What I saw in them shattered my mind.

It was the same sweet amber, kissed by sunlight that I’d seen upon meeting him. They were the same eyes that spoke to me with words no brain could understand. I stepped forward to help him and jumped back as Astro gnashed the empty air where my calf had just been.

That dog needed some serious obedience school.

“No Astro,” Noah said. His words came out quiet and raspy. Astro ducked her head and resumed begging for his attention.

“Noah, is that you?”

His eyes found mine and slowly focused. “Cora?” He scanned the room and then returned to me. “What am I doing here?”

“I was about to ask you the same question. Do you not remember busting into my room and trying to force me into sex?”

Grotesque horror played across his face.

“What?”

The alarmed tone of his voice cinched it for me. This was the real Noah. He didn't know what just happened. I didn't understand how it wasn’t him a minute ago, but it wasn’t.

I exhaled a breath that I didn’t realize I was holding. The tightness in my chest eased a little. Not enough.

The Noah of my dreams was still the Noah of my waking life.

After another stern word to Astro, Noah reached for me. I wasn't afraid. I helped him up. It wasn't until he was standing that I remembered his lack of clothes. It wasn't until it was Noah again that it mattered.

My eyes dropped to the thick flesh between his legs. It hung like heavy rope. I wondered how it was possible to long for it so soon after fearing it.

He had that effect on me. He made me question everything I thought I knew.
 

A bubble the size of Texas croaked in my throat. I tried to swallow but it was as stubborn as a Texan too. I should’ve averted my eyes but I couldn't. His cock was the center of my expanding universe. My eyes two planets caught in the gravitational pull.

“Ms. Gabarro, my eyes are up here.” His words came out smoother and with a hint of the playfulness that marked all his conversations.

I coughed and and the bubble popped, spraying out a fine mist of saliva.

“You don’t have any clothes on, Mr. Sinclair.”

I had control of my voice again, mostly. That was refreshing. My eyes weren’t so cooperative.

“As much as I’d like to remain in this state in your presence, now is not the time.”

Now could be the time.

What was the problem with now? Why did everybody hate on now, forever reaching over it for a better future that most often turned out to be no different than now?

Now was just fine in my books.

His skin shimmered. Warbling waves crawled across the surface. The dull gray of his skin suit dissolved into being. A clear outline remained of the bulge between his legs. It was impressive, but it no longer held hypnotic power.

I met Noah's eyes.

He bit his lip. His gorgeous lips. You couldn't refer to his lips without adding gorgeous. It was like the words were inseparable. With most lips, you could just say the one word and go on with your life. His required you to pause and then offer up the two. I could spend an eternity of words on them.

“Noah,” Cosmo’s voice echoed through the air, “the alien entity emerged and assumed control of your body. It was intent upon mating with Ms. Gabarro.”

Noah dropped his head and closed his eyes. He shook his head. “I need to explain some things, about what's going on here.”

“Ya think? You haven't been straight with me from the first email. You're lucky I don't call the authorities and have you locked up.”

In all honesty, I had no idea how to contact the authorities because I was pretty sure I was out of mobile range. And even if I could get through, it's not like they could send a squad car over to his house.”

He was a power until himself up here, 300 miles above the surface. I never thought about it that way before. He was clearly much bigger and stronger than I was. Still, I did have one weapon that had already proved effective. I just didn't want to use it again. Not if I didn’t have to.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Gabarro. I haven't been totally honest with you. The truth you must know is that I can't trust myself. I don't know if I'm in control or if it is.”

“Hold up. Stop right there. What is
it
?”

“It
is my disease. Was my cure. I don't know that much about it because I can't identify it by any conventional means. It appears to be a resident collective of organized thought.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It's a mind, Ms. Gabarro. An electromagnetic consciousness with ambitions of its own.”

“Why didn't you tell me this before? This is pretty fucking important information to have when considering rocketing up to meet a stranger in a space station.”

“I wanted to. I couldn't. The being inside me grows stronger. For years I thought I was crazy. For a while now, I've understood that I am.”

“You're crazy?”

“Not crazy in the conventional sense, no. But insane yes, in that I have two psyches residing within my body, warring for supremacy. Eventually, I realized the being emerged when I fell asleep. It used the weakness of sleep to subsume my personality. To control my body like a puppeteer.”

I was in a pretty shitty dilemma. I wanted to believe him because every fiber in my being knew that it wasn't him that attacked me. At the same time, accepting it as truth meant excepting the existence of an alien species. One made of only thought and intention. One that could possess a human’s body.

That didn’t sound appealing in the least.
Shitty dilemma
was wiping it cleaner than it deserved.

As my mind chewed on that nugget of unwelcome news, I realized I was still naked. Totally in the buff in front of the man I longed for more than any other.

“Can you turn around?”

“I was hoping you wouldn’t notice,” he said with a grin. His eyes swept over my exposed skin.

“Now.”

“Of course, Ms. Gabarro.”

He turned his back to me and I had my stunning periwinkle suit back on as quick as I could. It was no joy to slip into, but once it was on? Total joy. It felt like water sliding across my skin. Like I was a dolphin carving through waves. And it hugged my generous form just right. A little extra support here. A little needed tone there.

It seriously made me question my dedication to cutting back on carbs. I hadn’t done it yet. I was just about to when I got the news of my condition. Now it seemed pointless. Carbs were delicious, especially Spaghetti Aglio, and I didn’t have the rest of time to enjoy them.

I slipped on my boots with the same appreciation for fit and form.

“You can turn around,” I said.

He turned and a smile crept across his face.

“What? You prefer me clothed?”

He thought I was too curvy. He thought I was fat. Great. He’d seen me nekkers and now anything that could have been was over. I wasn’t like the starving supermodels he dated back on Earth.
 

You wouldn’t catch me skimping on carbs. Especially if it over between us.

“I find you compelling with or without clothes, Ms. Gabarro. Exquisitely so.”

Okay, that was a good sign. I’d have to reconsider the carb thing. I hoped any extended carb diet wouldn’t take much from backside. It was a little too round for my tastes, but Noah had mentioned it several times. I could keep it for him. If it gave me some leverage.