<Times Gone By>
Leaning out over what remained of the wall I looked through the binoculars at the aliens. They had set up their base just outside the city, and the way they were clearing blocks and expanding their perimeter it was getting progressively more difficult to get intel on them.
It had taken me nearly the entire day to make it to this little outcropping, the building was one of the taller ones on the outskirts of the city that they hadn’t blasted apart yet. It had been an office complex or something like that before the bombs fell, now with the missing walls but reasonably intact superstructure it was the perfect sentry post.
“You see anything new?” asked Venes.
I felt my ears twitch in irritation, and Venes sighed.
“Sorry, I’ll ask again in an hour.”
“Did you find anything useful?” I asked.
“Got some more wire, but that was low on the priority list. Found a few tablets and computers, no idea if they’ll work but I didn’t find anything else remotely worthwhile.”
“Good keep looking,” I said my eyes still locked on the aliens far below.
Something had to be going on, they had set up tents and for the past few hours regiments had been marching back and forth through the rubble. At first I had thought they were getting ready to move into the city to continue their merciless rampage, but after several hours of the repetitious movement I could only conclude that they were practicing their march.
It was impressive in a robotic kind of way, I was reminded of the videos I had seen from before the war. It was the type of posturing that complimented a force that thought they were invincible, and without equal.
I turned away from it disgusted and ducked down to grab my water bottle when the half wall of concrete I had been leaning on to watch the aliens exploded inwards.
“Shit!” I rolled away from the wall as several other shots rained down on it tearing through the already weakened wall like it was nothing.
“Venes!” I shouted.
Grabbing my own rifle I slid over to the hole in the floor and dropped down to the next level below.
“Venes!” I repeated.
The building shook, there was a sharp screech of metal begin twisted and torn apart.
“I’m over here!” shouted Venes.
I turned around towards the sound of his voice, just in time to see a beam from the floor above collapse down on top of him.
Venes dodged to the side avoiding the beam, but the floor beneath him gave way and unable to get his footing slipped. In a tumbled heap Venes was pitched out the side of the building into the air nearly 50 stories in the air, a mountain of rubble and debris following him.
“Rogue!” He shouted.
I watched him fall, it had happened so quickly I hadn’t even managed to take a step towards him. I hadn’t even tried to help him. I could have saved him, I could have saved him!
“Rogue!”
I blinked and it took me a moment to focus, the voice was odd twisting my name with a foreign accent.
“You OK?” asked Jon.
I was in the bed of an alien, on an alien world, my people were missing, and aliens occupied my home world.
I began to cry, the memory had been too real the pain from the loss repeated again opening the old scar.
Jon was on the bed next to me, the light from the natural satellite of the Earth reflecting on his face he didn’t say anything as I began to cry. Slowly and tentatively he reached out offering me his embrace, the warmth of his body.
For a moment, one ridiculous moment I wanted to turn away from him. He was an alien, it was aliens that had taken my world, and any comfort from him wasn’t going to change that. I looked up at his eyes, and the genuine emotion in them. He looked desperate and afraid, not sure what he was almost as distressed as I was.
Slowly I inched towards him, keeping my face hidden away.
His arms slowly encircled me and I shivered, the warmth of his body was always an exotic pleasure.
Another sob escaped my lips and Jon tightened his grip.
I wanted to pretend that he would never let go.
<Ups and downs>
“I’ve ridden in space ships, I don’t think this is going to be so bad,” said Rogue.
I smiled, “Well then what’s with your ears?” I asked.
She frowned and pulled the knit hat she was wearing tighter over her head.
“You can’t see them.”
“You’d think so, but I’ve gotten good and spotting them even when you have to hide them.”
She rolled her eyes, “Fine, I’m a little scared. We never had these on my world, it seems recklessly crazy.”
“It’s fun.”
We continued forward in the line and Rogue watched with interest as the station came into view.
“Those are some fairly serious restraints, are you sure this isn’t dangerous?” She asked looking at the people as they were strapped into the train.
“That’s so the operators don’t get sued. You don’t need something that serious, look at pictures of some of the older ones and they look seriously scary.”
Rogue nodded and we stepped forwards onto the platform.
Sitting down in the plastic seat I turned to look at her, she was staring straight ahead and the restraints were already synched in place. Her hands were clenched around the handholds, her skin was flushed slightly green instead of the human red, not enough for anyone to notice but I picked up on it.
The attendant came by and hurriedly checked the restraints on everyone, bending my arm at an awkward angle I put my hand on hers.
“You’ll either love it or hate it, most people aren’t anywhere in the middle for their opinion on roller coasters.”
She gave me a withering look, “That’s very reassuring, whoa!”
The train moved forward and I laughed as she grabbed my hand.
The train slowly made its way up to the top of the hill, the old chain underneath rattling away loudly, the music from the ride and the people around us the only sounds over the wind. We were in the middle of the train and I grinned watching Rogue as we started to speed up the front dragging us downwards over the first hill.
Rogue’s eyes widened and she let out a high screech as we fell. I was barely paying attention to the ride, my eyes locked on hers as we rode it out going through several quick turns, a loop and a few corkscrews. Her eyes terrified and apprehensive at first quickly transformed into an expression of almost childlike glee.
As we shot past the camera I looked up at the thing, it was going to be a picture to keep.
The blocks at the end of the ride jerkily stopped the train, Rogue slowly released my hand and let out a nervous laugh.
“So what did you think?” I asked.
“You people are insane!”
“You want to ride another?”
“Hell yes!”
Rogue looked miserable, she was shaking and glaring at me.
“You could have told me there was water on some of these!” she hissed.
“I didn’t know it had water!” I said, it had only been a quick spray from jet near the end of the ride, nothing like what a log flume would do. Still in the late spring air Rogue was cold and very unhappy with that quick splash.
She harrumphed and pointed at the bench seat next to her.
Chuckling I sat down. Rogue leaned against me wrapping her arms around my midsection.
“What made you decide to surprise me with this outing?” she asked.
“I think we both know why, do you want to talk about it?”
Rogue shook her head, “They’re just memories, we lost people fighting those aliens and more than a few times I nearly died fighting them.”
She paused and buried her face against my chest, I could hardly hear her when she next spoke.
“I still remember the faces of the ones I killed too, they haunt me more often than the faces of the ones we lost.”
I put my hand on her head and scratched at it.
“You were fighting for your home, no one would say what you did was wrong. At least you still see them as people, the way they stormed your world and tried to kill all of you I doubt they shared the sentiment.”
“I guess.”
She fell silent and the two of us looked out at the crowd and people as they streamed past us, teenagers awkwardly holding the hands of dates, children darting to and fro running their parents ragged, men and women guiltily breaking their diets eating ice cream and other confections. The sky was partially cloudy and the air slightly chilled, but still it was a perfect day.
“Do you ever want kids?”
I blinked and slowly turned my gaze to Rogue surprised by the question.
“I hadn’t really thought about it. Unless we’re both very wrong about how biology works it’s not possible, if it were we would have a kid by this point. Why do you ask?” my voice cracking slightly as the question.
I felt Rogue’s ears perk up underneath the hat, “I don’t know. Everyone I knew always had as many kids as they could, we needed to rebuild the population and all that but still big families were the norm even before the war. I’m just curious what you think.”
I swallowed nervous, “I never really pictured it before I met you, and afterwards it was never possible so I didn’t think of it. I wouldn’t mind kids I guess, but I’m not going to feel unfulfilled for not having any.”
“OK.”
I looked down at her and she turned her face away.
“Rogue, why are you really asking?”
“We can’t have kids, and you have to lie to everyone about me. At some point you might not want too.”
I considered her words for a moment, Rogue was an alien sure but she was also a woman which made her more difficult to figure out most of the time.
“Are you afraid I might get tired of you?” I asked.
She shrugged, “I’m waking you up all the time, I’m not human, you deserve someone who makes you happy, if that’s not me I don’t want you to stay with me because you think I need you. I got along fine on your planet before I met you!”
“Rogue,” I put my arms around her and squeezed her closer to me.
“You’re on a planet full of aliens, and I’m the only one on this little ball of dirt who knows what you are. It’s perfectly normal to be scared, but I can tell you I have no intention of leaving you.”
Rogue was silent for a moment, “What if I hear from my people? I have to go back to them, and I’m not going to take you with me.”
“Why not?”
“Because we’re going to war! It’s not your fight! You can live on this planet and be perfectly happy for the rest of your life!”
I slowly nodded, “At this point I’m only going to be happy on a planet so long as it’s the same one you’re on Rogue.”
“That sounds like a cheap pickup line,” she grumbled.
I laughed, “Maybe in a few hundred years, but I’m serious. If I want to make sure the woman I love doesn’t have to fight in an intergalactic war all by herself then I’m perfectly happy leaving Earth.”
“You say that now.”
“And I’ll say the same thing again tomorrow or in a hundred hears.”
“I might never get the signal,” said Rogue her voice low.
“A small entirely selfish part of me hopes you never do. When you do get the signal though I’m going with you, got that?”
Rogue nodded.
“Good,” I stood up and held my hand out to her. She demurely took it and I helped her to her feet.
“Now let me introduce you to funnel cakes.”
<A Future Promise>
“What’s this word mean?” I asked pointing at the tablet.
“Tradition, a family tradition.”
I nodded and turned back to the tablet to continue reading at the painfully slow pace.
Rogue was teaching me her language, which was called Januin. It had been the predominate language on her world for most of its history much like English. I had never had much of an ear for language so it was slow going but I was starting to get the hang of it.
We were both in bed, reading literature from one another’s cultures.
Rogue was currently working her way through classics, she particularly liked Tolkien her people had apparently never coming up with anything like magic in fiction.
I was working my way at a markedly slower pace through what was the equivalent to an encyclopedia, most of it cultural documents and analysis. My motivations were not purely curious however, keeping the subject of my research secret from her was proving difficult due to my need for translation and context though so it was slow going.
I yawned and set the tablet down.
“You ready to get some sleep?” I asked.
“A few more pages,” said Rogue.
“Alright.”
I closed my eyes and slid down on the bed relaxing. After a few minutes rogue set down her book and turning off the lamp slid down next to me. The two of us quickly drifted off to sleep comfortable in one another’s arms.
She woke me up at three AM, I winced as she scratched at my chest her arms moving wildly as she dreamed. Her skin was rippling in and out of her natural camouflage, and the single ear sticking up out of her hair was violently twitching in every direction.
I watched as she continued to struggle, either over the loss of another friend, or against an enemy. I desperately wanted to wake her from her dream, but that only made it worse ripping her violently from it. I was afraid that this was developing into some form of PTSD, she had fought in a war, escaped her planet, and landed on another world full of aliens. A little stress was to be expected, I hoped it wouldn’t be too much for her to handle.
She let out another whimper.
I really hated the aliens who had attacked her home world. They were the ones who had done this to her, hurt her like this. Her own people were not innocent they had destroyed their own world but they had been recovering, healing themselves, for the first time in their history a united front.
Then the aliens attacked and took that from them.
I opened my arms to Rogue, and even in her sleep she slowly gravitated to me. I wrapped my arms around her and held her close trying vainly to calm her.
Next Time on Life with an Alien Girlfriend
“No.”
“Yes!”
“We keep it for a night! Then we make sure it has a good home, we are not keeping it!” I said.
Both Rogue and the small kitten gave me a look that told me I was completely wrong.