Her Alien Protector: A Sci-fi Romance

Part 40

Rigel

During our sleep cycle, Ava is energetic. Instead of sleeping, she strokes my feathers and my feathers tingle. Then she starts a game of pressing her cute little behind against my groin, wiggles, and—Oh, my stars! My groin is on fire and like an adolescent Archae Bennuidae, I spurt.

Ava giggles. This is a different side of Ava, one growing in confidence, all because she can turn me on.

Ava does not know my secret. She does not need to go through all these contortions. Holding her lithe body in my arms is all it takes to excite me. Every part of me, from my feathers to cock, arises to salute her.

I pull her against my chest, trying to get her to settle down and sleep. My feisty Ava bites onto my feathers and—oh, my stars—she sucks. What is she doing with her tongue?!

May we play these games for all eternity.

***

When I awaken, I am refreshed in ways I have not felt in a long time. When I arrive at the helm, Dylan hurtles into me.

"Help," says Dylan, clutching at the fabric in my pant leg.

Compared to me, humans are small. The human child we have aboard with us is even tinier, so when I see him crying, how could I not pick him up and wrap my wings around him protectively? Who hurt this child? If Tarak did something...

"What is wrong, little human?"

The child's lip trembles, and he holds up a clear container. "Ava told me to teach Glow Ball and Bug Eyes to sleep with a human, and... Bug Eyes was like this when I woke up. Can you, um, fix Bug Eyes?"

I tap the container, peering inside. It looks like there is a dead and dried-up creature.

"Let's go find Kayla."

"Can she fix Bug Eyes?"

"She is an..." I can only remember a part of the word in the human language. "An 'ologist' or something?"

"Mr. Rigel, what is an..." Dylan crinkles his nose. "An old gist?"

"It means she is good with squishy things," I say and when Dylan frowns at me, I add, "Like you, or me, or Glow Ball, and even..."

"Bug Eyes."

"That's right. Let's go," I say, carrying the boy into the lab.

Ava is sitting at a station planting seeds and Kayla works at the wall unit. The moment I put Dylan down, he runs straight to Kayla.

Dylan holds out the container. "Fix Bug Eyes."

Kayla takes the container from Dylan, squinting at it. "What am I looking at exactly?"

"Oh no! Dylan found a small little animal in the tree. He wanted to teach it to sleep, so I put it in a sampling container," says Ava.

"Can you help?" says Dylan.

Kayla picks up a small clear wand and waves it over the container. Lots of flat lines project onto the wall unit.

Kayla places her hands on Dylan's shoulders, guiding him to the wall unit where she points out the various flat lines. "I'm sorry, sweety, see all these indicators on the wall, it means... Bug Eyes is dead."

Dylan looks from the wall and then to Kayla. "Can we do a celebration of life for Bug Eyes?"

"A what?"

"We take Bug Eyes," he says, taking the container back from Kayla. "Everyone says nice things we member about him, and then..." Dylan makes a whooshing sound, moving the canister forward with his hand.

Kayla's brow furrows as she gazes at Dylan.

"I think he means to say that everyone says nice things about Bug Eyes as a way to remember him, like a memorial, and then jettisoning his body into space when the ceremony is done," says Ava.

"That's what I said," says Dylan and the kid seems to be getting frustrated with me.

"Don't worry, Dylan," I say, ruffling his hair. "I'm sure we could do a ceremony of—"

"Stop," says Kayla. "We can do a hybrid ceremony, but we have strict protocols. Whenever possible, everything must be reused and recycled. We also need to be cautious in our energy expenditure. That means we can harvest the carcass for—"

"Kayla! Careful in how you refer to... Bug Eyes," says Ava, her eyes shifting toward Dylan who studies the canister in his hand.

"Sorry, I meant... Recycle the specimen. We can't use resources to ship the specimen into space, and we can't—"

"Kayla," says Ava. "The animal is no larger than my thumb, does it really use that many resources—"

Dylan lays his head against my shoulder and is shaking. I wrap my wings around the boy.

Kayla looks at me and Dylan. She gets pale and leaves the lab.

Ava comes to my side and hugs me. I stretch my wings, covering Ava. Good thing my wings are large; I can protect both the boy and Ava.

"This is all my fault," says Ava. "If I would have known this might happen, I would never have let Dylan keep Bug Eyes for the night."

"Don't think that way. Besides, Kayla did say we could do a hybrid ceremony, although we probably should wait to discuss it. Maybe after everyone has a bit of time to process it," I say, looking to Dylan who still lies on my shoulder.

Ava returns to her work, and I take Dylan out of the lab to distract him. Suddenly, the Firefly feels small. Nearly every place I can think of taking Dylan—the half-dozen empty rooms—is likely to be boring to a small child.

"Let's go to the helm. The wall unit in that room has games on it," I tell Dylan.

The kid and the rahoni follow me. Unfortunately, when we step into the helm, Tarak works at the wall unit with several projected maps. So much for playing a game. Dylan retreats to a large seat at the helm, clutching his sampling container and curling into a ball.

I sidle up to Tarak. "What are you working on?"

"I'm assessing various planetary conditions so that I can identify places to support us yet also help us hide if we encounter too many Hydra fighters," says Tarak, his eyes going from the wall unit to Dylan. "What is wrong with the little hooman?"

"Somehow, he has come to view Glow Ball and a small creature that was in the sampling container as his... pets? The one in the sampling container died and now he is devastated because we can't have a ceremony of life for the animal."

Tarak cocks his head as if studying Dylan. "His people conduct a ceremony of life for their pets? What does it consist of?"

I tell Tarak what I know, but then... "I do not want to pretend to understand his culture after such a brief amount of time, especially for one so young. All I know is what he requested, and he got upset when he learned the Firefly has limitations."

Tarak slaps his tail on the floor. "What limitations?"

"Tarak, at the end of the day, all of us, Ava and I and the boy, are guests aboard this ship. We must follow the rules of you and Kayla. In time, the boy will learn."

Tarak steps closer to me and growls. "Answer the question, bird. What are the limitations?"

"Protocols?" My wings must be full-on fluttering now. "I only know what Kayla said, which is that there are protocols that do not permit us to do things such as expend energy jettisoning the sampling jar with the bug. Right now it's hard for Dylan to understand, but with time, he will."

Tarak's tail writhes and he stomps toward the hallways. Dylan jumps, worriedly looking at Tarak.

Tarak bellows and calls into the hallway. "Kayla!"

I hope that in my attempt to help the boy, I have not pushed Tarak and Kayla into a domestic squabble. An angry Tarak will be too much for the boy, so to be safe, I pick Dylan up and carry the boy to his room.

Tarak's bellows continue echoing down the corridors.