Page 64 of Invasive Species
Perhaps this is not the logical choice, but it’s still my choice.
“Good,” she mutters into my scales. “Now then. I’m not the best planner, but I know you are. What are we going to do about the here and now?”
I’ve forgotten the rain pelting against my back. “I’m going to carry you back over the fields to the house, but I want this rain to stop.”
“It’ll never stop, it’s Britain,” she says with a sigh, hot breath setting my scales alight. “Thank you. You rock.”
“Me?” I frown at the sedimentary stones surrounding us. “I’m an organic life form.”
A noise behind me makes the scales on my back solidify to be as hard as betrillium. I hunker down over her. Nothing will get past me to her.
She wriggles to see past my shoulder, breasts in her sodden shirt pressing against my chest. “It’s that hiss from before. I think I know who it is.”
I risk a glance behind me. The purple chicken with all her feathers standing on edge struts behind me. When she opens her beak, the noise she makes sounds like a running faucet.
“Mae! You’re okay.” Arra-bellah grins widely.
“You see? Nothing will dare harm the… bird.” I’m not sure whether she is still a bird, but it will have to suffice for now.
“You were right,” Arra-bellah says. “You can rub it in now.”
“Rub.” I gently massage her shoulders and upper arms. She’s warmer than she was, but I need to get her out of these wet clothes. “I’ll rub you all over to dry you once we get under proper cover.”
“Sounds very nice… oh!” She bites her lip. “So, um, it looked like the condom melted on your knotting cock. I'm going to run out for some emergency contraceptives.”
The change in topic throws me, but she's made an incorrect assumption. “My knotting cock doesn't contain material for reproduction.”
“Oh. Okay.” She winces. “I guess I should have thought of this, but you don't have any diseases, right?”
“Of course not. I'm a Selthiastock, I never get ill or sick and no disease takes hold of me.”
“Is that because of all your nanites?” she asks.
“Nanites only repair physical damage. Selthiastocks have superior antibody reaction and manufacturing capability, more so than any other clone. Moreover, once I've encountereda disease, I can treat it in my shipmates. The process is almost an instinct, using smell and taste to isolate what I need to combat whatever we encounter.”
Her eyes go round. “So you can treat anything?”
“Not… everything.” My even tone hides my shame. I hadn’t been able to get the rare flower the female needed. It was a perfect excuse for my elimination. Unfortunately, it also involved the rest of the team.
Arra-bellah’s eyes soften, shimmering with unshed tears. “You’re plenty enough as you are. Thank you.” She nestles her cheek against my chest, her voice a whisper. “Thank you for being you.”
For being… me? I frown. “I’m nothing special.”
“Yes, you are,” she insists, her gaze lifting to mine, earnest and filled with something that makes my hearts stutter. “You’re patient and kind—more than I ever expected. You only get grumpy when you’re worried, and when you’re happy, you… glow.”
She smiles, her wide exuberant happiness making her bedraggled appearance irrelevant. She’s radiant despite her exhaustion and pain, shining brighter than any stars in the sky.
I glance down and realize that I am glowing—a soft, yellow-green pulse in rhythm with my heartbeats. I can’t help but imagine, if she were whole and uninjured, if we were back at the homestead… I would be making love to her in every way possible, showing her just how much I want her.
She snuggles closer. “Much better than the stories say.”
“Indeed.” I lower my chin gently to rest on the crown of her head, careful not to disturb the bruise on her temple. “But I’ve always wondered something.”
“Hm?” she hums, her voice drowsy.
“All these captive females across the galaxy… don’t captured troops have rights? How is this allowed?”
Her laugh is soft, sweet, and it makes my glow burnbrighter, but the tremor in her body steals away my joy, replacing it with a deep-rooted fear.
