Page 14 of Alien's Eternal Mate

I had a tail, too.

I sucked in a deep breath, and then let out a scream of pure terror. My voice sounded strange to my ears, deeper and more resonant.

The female alien screamed as well. She fled out of the room as I stared in horror at my body.

Calm down, Carter. You’re a man of science, so calm down. This isn’t a dream, because you’re just not that imaginative. And it can’t be a holographic simulation. It could be some kind of psychotic, hallucinogenic break but that’s not likely.

I slowed my breaths, let go of the side of the bed I clutched so tightly, and let the tension ease from my shoulders and neck. The screaming outside of my room stopped.

The device I activated in the ruins must be responsible for this. I’ve switched bodies with an alien on some godforsaken world. Oh, how Dowron would be amused!

I forced myself to remain calm, though my thoughts wanted to race. Whatever had been done to me could likely be undone. I just had to figure out how.

Given that the metal walls looked the same as those in the Lunar base, it was possible the alien I’d switched minds with was not far away. I might even be able to find my real body.

I went to the window, pulling aside the intricately stitched animal hide. Three moons shone down upon me from on high, mingling with a vast tapestry of stars.

I stumbled back and fell upon the bed once more. Not Luna, then. Not Earth, or any system I’d ever heard of. My specialty wasn’t in astronomy or celestial navigation, but still I felt as if I should have found something familiar about the night sky.

Even the heavens are denied to me here. Perhaps this is my penance for my time spent with Project Blue Dawn. I suppose I have to admire the gods’ sense of irony if that’s the case.

Footsteps rushed up outside the door. I looked that way as another alien entered, this one a male. He wore a long robe over his scaled form. When he moved, he jingled from many pouches and bangles secured to his waist.

His yellowed scales struck me as a sign of advanced age, as did his hunched posture. He approached the bed with what seemed inordinate caution, as if I were a wild animal rather than a member of his own species.

I caught movement at the door. The female had returned, barely peeking in the room. I soon realized that the lumps I’d taken for bony protrusions on her head were, in fact, tufts of roughly shorn hair.

The old alien had long, wispy blonde hair, and I appeared to have hair black as midnight cut into a single, bushy stripe down my skull. I assumed the females shaved their heads for some arcane reason and put it out of my mind.

“Gro,” the old alien rasped. “Are you well?”

I could understand him, so I took a leap of faith that he could understand me.

“I feel well enough physically.”

Now I found myself faced with a dilemma. If I confessed my condition, that I was a member of an alien—to them—species from a far off star who had possessed their countryman’s body, there were many reactions they might have.

They might not believe me, in which case I would be treated for insanity or mental illness. No matter what culture you come from, that’s not a good trajectory to follow.

Or, they might decide to believe me, and even try to help me switch back to my real body. That didn’t seem likely, however.

If they did believe me, the likely outcome would be incarceration and intensive experimentation in an effort to get their native son back into his own body.

So telling the truth was out. That left me with one clear option, a narrative easy to pull off given my total naivete about my surroundings.

“Physically, you say?”

His neck moved as he swallowed, taking a cautious half step forward. I was beginning to wonder if I was radioactive.

“Yes.” I covered my face with my hand. “This is quite embarrassing. I’m afraid I don’t know who I am. In fact, I don’t remember much of anything at all.”

The assumed doctor’s eyes narrowed.

“I see. Such loss of memory sometimes happens in Backlash cases like your own.”

“Backlash?”

The doctor’s eyes widened, and a gasp stole his breath.

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