Lily
Holy shit.
My mind is a chaotic whirlwind as I watch Ravok review his report. The alien script means nothing to me, and I don’t want to distract him as he works, so I sit silently and stew in my juices. Terrible phrasing – but not entirely inaccurate. There is no question that my panties are currently damp.
I don’t know that I’ve ever been kissed like that – like I’m the very air he needs to breathe. I could easily get addicted to kisses like that. Which is a very,verybad idea. Ravok can’t stay on Earth. It’s too dangerous. He will never pass as human, even if I covered him in convincing make-up and got him to wear contacts. He’d have to spend the rest of his life in disguise, hidden away from the public. That wouldn’t be fair to him.
Getting attached would be a terrible, terrible idea. Although I suspect a part of me already is. Ravok is not a stray I can adopt from the shelter. He has a home. He has people who will misshim. My job is to help get him safely off this planet and to let him go.
I kinda want to puke at the thought, but I ruthlessly shove those feelings down. This isn’t about what I want; it’s about Ravok and what he needs. When I fantasize about finding a way for him to stay, I ruthlessly remind myself about the scars littering his body.
Knowing that we can now talk, I want to ask him a million and one questions. But I hold my tongue because I don’t want to distract Ravok while he works. I have to physically bite my lips to keep the words that want to spill out inside my mouth. I’m practically vibrating out of my skin but give myself a stern lecture about not being a distraction.
After reviewing the report, Ravok rises from his seat in the ship’s cockpit. Stepping back, I follow him out of the tight space. His broad shoulders almost graze against the narrow walls as he heads to the back of the ship. His stride is confident and sure as if he’s spent a lot of time in this tiny space. It makes me feel claustrophobic to imagine spending more than 30 minutes in here and I’m half Ravok’s size.
He pauses at an interior panel that, until now, seemed no different than the rest of the smooth metallic spaceship wall. His silvered fingers dance across its surface, pressing down in a mesmerizing rhythm. I blink in disbelief as a panel opens and slides to the side, revealing a small compartment. “My nanites interface with the ship to give me access. The human scientists didn’t figure this out.”
His words confirm some of my worst fears, but I can’t bring myself to ask about what happened with the ‘human scientists’.
My mouth opens, ready to ask what nanites are, but I close it and swallow back my words. This isn’t the time to bombard him with questions. Maybe that’ll come later, in the safety of my borrowed cabin, over lunch and firelight.
Inside the panel, an array of tools and items are laid out in meticulous order, shining oddly under the spaceship’s dim lights. Ravok plucks out an elongated device with a pensive air. It reminds me of an ultrasound wand scanner, but it is sleeker and more futuristic-looking than anything I’ve seen.
Ravok gives me a preoccupied smile and starts to exit the ship, so I follow him. He begins to pull away some of the branches that cover his crashed ship.
“Here, let me help,” I call out, hurriedly rushing to his side. I grab one of the branches, dragging it away. After a few minutes, we clear away most of the camouflage, sending small clouds of dirt and leaves into the air.
As soon as our task is complete, I step back, giving Ravok space. His graphite skin glows under the sunlight, making him look even more like a futuristic android than usual.
Ravok pries open a panel on its side. Inside the opening is a complex network of wires and tubes, all looped and intertwined in a way that makes my head spin. The wires are unlike anything I’ve ever seen, some pulsing with lights, others making noises that remind me of purring kittens. It’s mesmerizing, if not a little daunting.
With a firm grip on his alien wand, Ravok runs it over the wires and tubes. A soft hum fills the air, growing louder with every passing second. As the wand skims over the inscrutable maze of technology, it emits a light that dances over the intricacies of the alien tech. It makes me think of the PKE meter from Ghostbusters, almost bringing a grin to my face.
As Ravok reaches deep into the guts of his ship, I can’t help but take a quick peek at his beefy ass hanging out of the open hatch. It’s not my fault that his hindquarters look like a master sculptor created them.
He pulls out of the hatch and stares unseeingly into the opening. I watch as he lets out a slow, worried breath, his usuallycomposed features creased with concern. In that moment, with the tension evident in his strong shoulders, he seems entirely human. A very worried human.
“Ravok, how is your ship?” I ask, breaking the silence that had settled over us.
He turns to look at me, his eyes meeting mine. “A few of the mechanical systems are damaged,” he starts slowly as if struggling to find the right words in English. “The energy storage system, my communication systems, and the navigation array.”
Oh, is that all?
“That sounds like a lot of repairs…” I mutter, observing his downcast face. “How long do you think it will take? To fix everything?”
He scratches along his jaw, a sign of deep thinking. “I’m not sure yet,” he admits finally as worry knots his brow. “Thankfully, the main hull is still space-worthy, otherwise this would be hopeless. I’m going to need more tools and supplies than I have onboard.”
“There’s a garage next to the cabin and it has some tools,” I respond, a faint glimmer of hope lighting up in my chest. “It’s got a workshop area and I saw some pretty big toolboxes. It belongs to the cabin’s owner, who is letting me stay here, so maybe we’ll luck out, and it’ll have what you need. If not, there is also a mechanic in town that I might be able to borrow tools from or something. I also remember seeing a hardware store that carries all kinds of equipment. We’ll figure it out,” I promise him, even though I don’t know if that’s true.
Ravok’s eyes meet mine again. This time, they’re bright, shining with newfound hope. It makes my heart flutter in a way I can’t deny, and I find myself praying that we’ll find what we need in that garage – just so Ravok will keep looking at me like that.
“Leelee… Thank you. Once I take a look at the systems, I would appreciate it if you could show me this garage.” His eyeslock with mine, deep and full of promise, making my heart tango in my chest. He looks back at the ship with a thoughtful look. “Leelee… do you think your garage is large enough to house my vessel? It would be preferable to get it out of the open and hidden somewhere – where I can work on it without fear of discovery.”
I look over the ship and try to remember what I saw of the garage. Both times I was inside the space, I’d been in a rush to find supplies to either rescue an alien or pull a bullet out of his shoulder.
I shrug. “I think so. Either way, we should take it back to the cabin and find a way to hide it there. You can’t keep it out here. There’s too big a chance that someone stumbles upon it accidentally.”
“Then we should take it back to your home,” Ravok agrees nonchalantly, like hauling around spaceships through the woods is no biggie.
