Given to the Alien (Science Fiction BBW/Alien Romance) Read online

  But they were elusive, and even though they seemed to be able to travel among the stars pretty easily, they had never contributed any kind of technology to Earth.

  They had just kept coming and going at irregular intervals, seemingly for no particular purpose. It took Earth a while to wake up the the fact that the whole planet seemed to become a little worse off each time the Ethereals visited. No one could pinpoint exactly why that was, except that recessions seemed to become constant and that tiny little wars tended to flare up all over the planet after a visit by the seemingly perfect aliens. It was strange – they always preached peace, but they seemed to somehow incite unrest and hatred.

  And they never really gave any help with any of Earth's many problems. They just spouted platitudes, like 'peace is its own reward' and 'the welfare of the planet rests with the planet'.

  The fact that cases of missing persons always exploded after each Ethereal visit had only been realized much later.

  After two years of irregularly spaced visits, the conclusion was too obvious to ignore. The United Nations had given a statement to the Ethereals that they were no longer welcome. The aliens had smiled their beautiful smiles and left. No one missed them.

  Then, less than a week later, an Ethereal spaceship had been reported in orbit around the Moon, where a colony of six thousand mostly civilians had been flourishing for five years. It was called Moon City and had already produced several revolutionary inventions, especially in the medical field. Much of Earth's hope for the future rested with Moon City, and it felt as if mankind was finally leaving its nest and going out into the universe.

  All that was seen from Earth was a huge explosion as the aliens leveled the whole Moon colony with one large nuclear bomb. Earth's hope for a glorious future was destroyed along with it.

  Olivia shifted her position in the chair. The only thing that was difficult while wearing the exoskeleton was sitting still – the thing vibrated with pent-up energy and made it hard to make small movements. She was always slightly worried of somehow triggering the emergency mode that would expend all its stored energy in one violent move. With bad luck, it might propel her through a wall. Or a ceiling.

  Wilhelmsen had a point. Swords against the Ethereals – it seemed pretty primitive. But the Braxians might have other weapons, too. Their spaceships looked as raggedy as they themselves did, just black cylinders with spars and edges and shards and spears sticking out everywhere. No one from Earth had ever been allowed inside one of their ships, not even Hoffner.

  “I suppose you can guess where I'm going with this, Olivia. We need information. Are the Braxians actually fighting the Ethereals or are they full of shit? Have they ever won against them? Who are they, anyway? Where do they come from? Are they being truthful? And most of all: Can we trust them? Aliens have burned us once. And they burned us bad. We don't want it to happen again.”

  Olivia got it, all right. “You want me to get close to their general.”

  Wilhelmsen nodded. “Yes. He already knows who you are, and we have reason to believe that he respects you. At least his behavior seems to point to that. What were his words? You 'intrigue' him. Can't ask for a better start than that.”

  Olivia felt butterflies take off in her stomach. This was a real assignment, a top level thing. But the desperation of which it spoke meant that if she made any mistake, it could have huge consequences for all of Space Force. And for Earth.

  Wilhelmsen sat back down behind her desk and peered at her. “You're going pale, Olivia. I see you understand how important this is. Hoffner opened an interesting door by promoting you. Now that you're an officer, I can assign you as liaison officer to the Braxians. That's usually a task for older officer, major or above, but this situation is so unusual that we have to capitalize on every advantage we can get. General Ator'aq will probably understand that you're Intelligence, because liaison officers always are. I'm afraid there's no time to give you diplomatic training. But it shouldn't be a problem. The Braxians aren't very diplomatic anyway. Think you're up for this?”

  Olivia swallowed in a dry throat. The responsibility made her dizzy. But she was a space marine. She'd do her best. If her superiors believed in her, she could believe in herself. “Yes, ma'am!”

  Wilhelmsen smiled. “I thought you might. As an aside, I can tell you that liaison work is often a good thing for a military career. Not promising anything specific, you understand. Handle this right, and you'll not only help us, but there's also a good chance that you get something in return. Officer or not, this is above and beyond.”

  “Thank you, ma'am.”

  “I think,” the general said pensively, “that now that we're both officers, and you have just become one of Intel's most valuable assets, that you can call me Sita in private.”

  “Thank you, ma'a- Sita.”

  The Intelligence Chief got to her feet as a sign that the meeting was over, and Olivia scrambled to her feet. The general was informal, but space marine protocol had firmly attached itself to Olivia's being. “You can take tomorrow off. Celebrate your promotion. I will so inform Colonel Garcia. I don't think you'll be needed on MP duty anymore. Then, the next morning, report to General Ator'aq. If you can find him. Contact me for any questions. Discreetly. Of course, any info you can get about the Ethereals is of great value, too. Whatever he'll tell you is of interest. Any little thing.”

  “Yes, Sita. I'll do my best.” Olivia started leaving the room.

  “Olivia,” the general said behind her, and she turned. Wilhelmsen had an enigmatic look on her face. “Get close to their general. But not too close, if you know what I mean. He's a damn hunk, and he looks like a runway model for lumberjack wear. But never forget who you are and where your loyalties lie.”

  The general nodded her dismissal and Olivia left her office. She glanced at the golden bar on her shoulder. Alien liaison. An officer for under two hours, and already in trouble.

  Oh well. Weird things could happen in wartime. And if this was as bad as it got, then she could live with that.

  5

  Olivia was off duty and had taken off her uniform, preferring to be in civilian clothes when she went out. She had only told Devon about her promotion, and she had gone to bed after the meeting with Wilhelmsen. It had taken her a while to fall asleep. She'd had a big day.

  Becoming an officer carried with it some changes, not least that she would now get better quarters and a slightly larger paycheck. Not that there was much to spend money on here on the International Space City in orbit around the Earth, now about to be renamed Space Force Base as soon as the last civilians had left.

  But beer was still available at the bar, and it didn't show any signs of closing. There were more people here than the eventful night before, but still it was less crowded. The original owner had left the station, and the bar had been taken over by Space Force Supply Command. They had cheerfully annexed an empty adjacent space that had been a clothes store with overpriced goods for tourists who would come here from Earth to be able to say they'd been in space. Now there would be no tourists until the war had been either won or lost, so the store had closed weeks earlier.

  Devon and Tessa were there, both space marines. Tessa was Olivia's sister, and had happily followed in her older sister's footsteps right into the Space Marine Corps. She was a corporal already, even if she was three years younger than Olivia. They had secured a table for themselves and sipped cool and outrageously expensive beer after having toasted to Olivia's promotion.

  “Ain't cheap to ship this stuff up from Earth,” Devon commented and peered at the can. “They should probably try to brew it here instead. They could sell it on Earth, too. Lots of people down below would be happy to drink beer brewed in space.”

  “Makes shipping easier, too,” Tessa said. “You just drop it and let it fall down. Let's go into business. You brew it, I'll be in charge of shipping. Deal?”

  Olivia took a sip. It tasted pretty great. But most things would this night. Her life w
as going in the right direction, and she was happy. “What if you miss and hit a car down there?”

  Tessa waved her hand dismissively. “No problem. A car that's hit by cans of beer falling from space will probably pretty much disintegrate. The owner won't be able to prove that his heap of dust was ever a car.”

  Devon scratched his chin. He tended to take things literally. “Won't the can burn long before that? Like one of those shooting stars? And the beer inside will probably boil. It would be raining boiling beer. Not sure if that's a great business.”

  “Listen to mister farm boy over here,” Tessa said. “He pinpoints all the weaknesses of our industrial plan. Don't worry, Devon. We'll just sell it in bulk. Container not provided. 'Use your own bucket to collect the boiling hot space beer you bought as it falls excitingly from the sky!' Fun for the whole family. We could charge more because it's both a beverage and a game.”

  Devon nodded slowly as if he considered the merits of that plan. “I suppose. Well, some of us won't have to think about doing any kind of business. I mean those of us who will have officers' pensions.”

  “War-serving officer's pension, too,” Tessa added, lifting her eyebrows at her older sister. She was probably more proud of her big sister's promotion than Olivia was herself.

  “If we survive,” Olivia pointed out.

  Tessa leaned across the table, her dark brown eyes large and round. She was a curvy girl, just like Olivia, and she had the face of an angel. “You think there will really be a war? I mean, a real one?”

  Olivia shrugged. “It's only a rumor, okay? Don't tell anyone I said this. But the Star Marshal did talk as if he expected that.”

  Devon snorted. “Of course there has to be a war. Six thousand dead on the Moon. As soon as they use nukes, we'll come gunning for them with everything we have.”

  “Yeah,” Tessa said. “But do we really have that much to gun them with? I mean, we have like ten space shuttles and this space station and ten thousand space marines. But don't the Ethereals have real spaceships? And space nukes?”

  “Have to do something, can't let that kind of thing just pass,” Devon drawled as if he were a town sheriff in the old West. “With our Braxian allies, there's no way those damn fairies will survive for as much as a week.”

  “Uh-huh.” Olivia didn't want to talk a lot while drinking beer. She might suddenly find herself having said too much. Already she regretted bringing up the Star Marshal again.

  As if she could read her mind, Tessa leaned in. “What else did he say, Olivia?”

  No one here knew that she had been recruited to Military Intelligence six months ago. She had been told to keep it secret, and she had. She had to keep General Wilhelmsen out of everything.

  “Nothing. Not much of a talker. Just said he was happy with how we had treated the Braxian hothead and that I was a second lieutenant now. Supposed to look like a reward, so that the Braxians won't think we're weak.”

  “Don't want to look weak in front of that general of theirs,” Devon said. “That's a warrior for real. He smells blood, he'll finish you off so fast you won't see it coming.”

  Tessa leaned closer. “I heard they wear animal skins and only use hatchets. Is that true?”

  Olivia took another sip while thinking hard. Her friends would know she was an alien liaison soon enough, but she wasn't about to tell them. They'd have to figure it out on their own. “They don't really wear uniforms, as far as I could tell. Just... a kind of rags, I guess. Random garments. And that one guy wore a kilt made of fur.”

  “Are they hot? Like, viking warrior hot?”

  Devon snorted and leaned back, showing for all the world that he didn't care one way of the other of another man was considered hot.

  Olivia hid a burp behind her hand. “I guess that general is pretty athletic. Nice face, too.” That was all she was going to say.

  “Yeah?” Tessa said. “Like, dark blond hair that he keeps short but thick, muscles that seem to have muscles of their own, tight pants that show a cute little butt and thighs the size of tree trunks? And a cocky smirk on his face that could stop a heart from twenty yards away?”

  Olivia frowned. That was a suspiciously good description. “Have you seen him, too?”

  “Looking at him right now,” Tessa said and pointed past Olivia.

  She turned her head. And there was General Ator'aq, just entering the bar along with two of his Braxian commandos. And the alien warrior seemed to be looking straight at her from the other side of the room.

  6

  “You weren't kidding when you said he was athletic,” Tessa said, keeping an eye on the aliens over Olivia's shoulder. “That guy could probably wrestle a polar bear and not break a sweat. And he can wrestle me anytime, if you know what I mean.”

  Olivia rolled her eyes. Her little sister had never hidden her interest in sexy guys. “Tessa, there are people on Mars who know what you mean.”

  Devon frowned. “You mean... sex, right?”

  Tessa kept her eyes fixed on the aliens. “You know, I think maybe I do. But I'd make him break a sweat, though, even if the polar bear doesn't. Have no fear.”

  Devon groaned. “Chicks.”

  Tessa was clearly getting excited, and the beer probably helped. “How about that, Olivia, before we go to our certain space deaths in a war against the Ethereals, get us a little roll in the hay with some alien warrior, huh? Probably wouldn't mind dying so much then, 'cause you'd already been to heaven once before. Or twice.”

  Olivia glanced over at the Braxian aliens. They were slapping each other's backs, joking around, getting a lot of attention from every Earthling in the bar. They did seem to fill the room with their larger-than-life bearings and boisterous behavior. If she weren't under orders not to get too close, then...

  “Hey, you know that guy, right, Olivia? Introduce me if they get closer?”

  “Tessa, I don't know...”

  “Hey, no fair! You want that general to yourself, huh? No no no. I'm in the running too. Big sister or not, officer or not, I won't hesitate to... to... scowl at you if you steal my alien general. 'kay? Got it? Good.”

  Olivia had to smile. Tessa was already good and drunk after two glasses of beer. She was the worst lightweight in the company.

  “Alright, Tess. Help yourself. I don't want me no alien. Don't even know if they got it where it counts.”

  “Are you freaking kidding me? Can you not see the bulge on that guy?”

  “Maybe their uh... things... are really weird, like tentacles or shaped like umbrellas or coke bottles or something. They are aliens, after all. Have to be different from us in some way, right?”

  Tessa would not be discouraged. “Ohmigod, or maybe they're weird in a cool way, like with appendages that detach and you can just pick what kind of-”

  Devon broke her off with a loud groan. “Dammit. I have to get me some new friends sometime soon. Some guys. This is just getting too sick.”

  Olivia looked around again. The aliens were talking to others now, cheerfully talking and laughing and joking with the space marines and other people sitting around. They seemed to be becoming really popular. And, she noted, it was especially the women in the room that seemed to find the aliens interesting. Especially Ator'aq, who was wearing a tight, black tee-shirt and pants that looked suspiciously like jeans. That simple outfit made him look like any man from Earth, but bigger and more muscular and attractive than anyone Olivia had ever seen. At least he had left his sword behind. But those arms on him...

  He calmly shifted his gaze again, and this time he was definitely looking straight at her. And he was winking at her, with a roguish look on his face. Olivia turned her back again and groaned internally. If he was going to try to pick her up...

  “Ohmigod, I think they're coming this way!” Tessa squealed, peering excitedly past Olivia. “And he's flirting with me from across the room! And he's sensatio-hic-ally hot! Oh yeah, come to Tessa, you hot alien hunk with your arms and your face and your umbrel
la-shaped... thing...”

  Olivia busied herself with drinking the last of the beer in her glass. This could get awkward. She was under orders to not get too close to the guy. Did being around him socially count? Could she use this to her advantage and try to gauge his intentions in these unofficial surroundings? Even if she wasn't looking behind her, she could hear his deep voice and the excited squeals of other female space marines and station staff as he flirted with them, easily joking with them in their own language, as if he had spoken it for decades. He did have a sliver of an accent, a lilting quality to his speech that was actually pretty interesting and attractive.

  She sighed. He was the hottest guy in the room, and of course he was the one she was forbidden from getting close to.

  He and another Braxian were very close now, she could hear, shamelessly flirting with two female medics at the next table.

  “- and then we said, hey, Earth girls are hot, let's go there. So we did.”

  “Ohmigod, I'm so glad you came! Can I come aboard your spaceship?” some bright-voiced girl said behind Olivia.

  “Aliens aboard our spaceships?” The other Braxian laughed. “I love your species, so optimistic. Well, I suppose it might be possible. But you'd have to prove yourself. I mean, really prove yourself. And you must know that aliens are only allowed aboard our ships if they're completely naked. Can't risk anyone smuggling things inside in their clothing. I'm sure you understand.”

  The girl just gasped happily. “Really? Ohmigod that's so weird. Okay, when can I come?”

  Yeah, everyone wanted those guys. Despite herself, Olivia felt a little spark of jealousy. Why did they have to be such terrible flirts?

  Then she could see in Tessa's face that the alien general was turning his attention to her – her sister's young face lit up in excitement as she looked up at him like a kid would look at Santa Claus, eyes shining in expectation.

  And there he was, all handsome smirking face and manly smell. His attention was on Tessa.

  “You know,” he began, “I've traveled for sixty light years to get here. And then I find you waiting at the end of my journey. It took us a year to get here, a time spent among the empty darkness of space with only grim death commandos for company. And then I get here, and I see you, and I think, yeah, that was totally worth it.”