Chosen by the Alien Above Part 5: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance Serial Read online

  “My bad,” I said. “We're still not cool. I get it.”

  I returned my attention to Noah's unmoving form. The wounds in his throat had grown smaller. One gash stitched itself together and healed to smooth skin.

  What the hell?

  Why was it on my first night in space everything had to go bat shit crazy? If this was an example of your average weekly space emergency, you could count me out.

  In another minute, the remaining tears in Noah's neck healed themselves. The floor shivered to solidity. The surface clean as ever.

  It was impossible. Nobody healed like that. Either I was still in the dream or I had awakened into a nightmare.

  What did Cosmo say? He was saying something. Granted, his words weren't the focus of my attention but it felt like something important.

  “Cosmo?”

  “Yes, Ms. Gabarro?”

  “What did you say earlier?”

  “I apologize, Ms. Gabarro. I attempted to inform Noah that the ice cream wasn't suitable for optimal consumption.”

  Lord, please strike this imbecile between the hard disks!

  “Not the fucking ice cream,Cosmo! Too far back. I'm talking about just now. A few minutes ago. Repeat what you said then.”

  I swore if he said some inane thing like if I snored in my sleep—I knew I sometimes did—I would personally blow this whole friggin station to smithereens.

  “Alien entity, you do not have consent to exercise corporeal control of the consciousness that is Noah Sinclair. I insist you release him immediately.”

  I considered for a moment and ended up no wiser for it.

  “Cosmo, what am I missing?”

  “There is an 87.462% probability that you miss Earth and the familiarity of the your environment there.”

  A terminator-esque future was seriously nothing we needed to worry about.

  I was about to try to rephrase the question when Noah's body moved. It was strange to think of it in those terms, as his body moved instead of he moved. But the neon inferno in his eyes combined with what I’d just heard made it entirely appropriate.

  Something didn’t fit. I didn’t know if the thing moving before me was Noah.

  His hand raised and pinched the bridge of his nose. His eyes clamped tighter like he didn’t want to wake up.

  I knew any second that inhuman, electric yellow would find me again. Would attack me again. I bent my knees and got ready to crack him again if it was needed.

  GRREAARRRAAHHH.

  Oh no! Astro sensed danger. Sensed the alien or whatever taking over Noah's body. Noah's hand dropped and his eyes opened.

  What I saw in them shattered my mind.

  It was the same sweet amber, kissed by sunlight that I’d seen upon meeting him. They were the same eyes that spoke to me with words no brain could understand. I stepped forward to help him and jumped back as Astro gnashed the empty air where my calf had just been.

  That dog needed some serious obedience school.

  “No Astro,” Noah said. His words came out quiet and raspy. Astro ducked her head and resumed begging for his attention.

  “Noah, is that you?”

  His eyes found mine and slowly focused. “Cora?” He scanned the room and then returned to me. “What am I doing here?”

  “I was about to ask you the same question. Do you not remember busting into my room and trying to force me into sex?”

  Grotesque horror played across his face.

  “What?”

  The alarmed tone of his voice cinched it for me. This was the real Noah. He didn't know what just happened. I didn't understand how it wasn’t him a minute ago, but it wasn’t.

  I exhaled a breath that I didn’t realize I was holding. The tightness in my chest eased a little. Not enough.

  The Noah of my dreams was still the Noah of my waking life.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  After another stern word to Astro, Noah reached for me. I wasn't afraid. I helped him up. It wasn't until he was standing that I remembered his lack of clothes. It wasn't until it was Noah again that it mattered.

  My eyes dropped to the thick flesh between his legs. It hung like heavy rope. I wondered how it was possible to long for it so soon after fearing it.

  He had that effect on me. He made me question everything I thought I knew.

  A bubble the size of Texas croaked in my throat. I tried to swallow but it was as stubborn as a Texan too. I should’ve averted my eyes but I couldn't. His cock was the center of my expanding universe. My eyes two planets caught in the gravitational pull.

  “Ms. Gabarro, my eyes are up here.” His words came out smoother and with a hint of the playfulness that marked all his conversations.

  I coughed and and the bubble popped, spraying out a fine mist of saliva.

  “You don’t have any clothes on, Mr. Sinclair.”

  I had control of my voice again, mostly. That was refreshing. My eyes weren’t so cooperative.

  “As much as I’d like to remain in this state in your presence, now is not the time.”

  Now could be the time.

  What was the problem with now? Why did everybody hate on now, forever reaching over it for a better future that most often turned out to be no different than now?

  Now was just fine in my books.

  His skin shimmered. Warbling waves crawled across the surface. The dull gray of his skin suit dissolved into being. A clear outline remained of the bulge between his legs. It was impressive, but it no longer held hypnotic power.

  I met Noah's eyes.

  He bit his lip. His gorgeous lips. You couldn't refer to his lips without adding gorgeous. It was like the words were inseparable. With most lips, you could just say the one word and go on with your life. His required you to pause and then offer up the two. I could spend an eternity of words on them.

  “Noah,” Cosmo’s voice echoed through the air, “the alien entity emerged and assumed control of your body. It was intent upon mating with Ms. Gabarro.”

  Noah dropped his head and closed his eyes. He shook his head. “I need to explain some things, about what's going on here.”

  “Ya think? You haven't been straight with me from the first email. You're lucky I don't call the authorities and have you locked up.”

  In all honesty, I had no idea how to contact the authorities because I was pretty sure I was out of mobile range. And even if I could get through, it's not like they could send a squad car over to his house.”

  He was a power until himself up here, 300 miles above the surface. I never thought about it that way before. He was clearly much bigger and stronger than I was. Still, I did have one weapon that had already proved effective. I just didn't want to use it again. Not if I didn’t have to.

  “I’m sorry, Ms. Gabarro. I haven't been totally honest with you. The truth you must know is that I can't trust myself. I don't know if I'm in control or if it is.”

  “Hold up. Stop right there. What is it?”

  “It is my disease. Was my cure. I don't know that much about it because I can't identify it by any conventional means. It appears to be a resident collective of organized thought.”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  “It's a mind, Ms. Gabarro. An electromagnetic consciousness with ambitions of its own.”

  “Why didn't you tell me this before? This is pretty fucking important information to have when considering rocketing up to meet a stranger in a space station.”

  “I wanted to. I couldn't. The being inside me grows stronger. For years I thought I was crazy. For a while now, I've understood that I am.”

  “You're crazy?”

  “Not crazy in the conventional sense, no. But insane yes, in that I have two psyches residing within my body, warring for supremacy. Eventually, I realized the being emerged when I fell asleep. It used the weakness of sleep to subsume my personality. To control my body like a puppeteer.”

  I was in a pretty shitty dilemma. I wanted to believe him because every fiber in my
being knew that it wasn't him that attacked me. At the same time, accepting it as truth meant excepting the existence of an alien species. One made of only thought and intention. One that could possess a human’s body.

  That didn’t sound appealing in the least. Shitty dilemma was wiping it cleaner than it deserved.

  As my mind chewed on that nugget of unwelcome news, I realized I was still naked. Totally in the buff in front of the man I longed for more than any other.

  “Can you turn around?”

  “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice,” he said with a grin. His eyes swept over my exposed skin.

  “Now.”

  “Of course, Ms. Gabarro.”

  He turned his back to me and I had my stunning periwinkle suit back on as quick as I could. It was no joy to slip into, but once it was on? Total joy. It felt like water sliding across my skin. Like I was a dolphin carving through waves. And it hugged my generous form just right. A little extra support here. A little needed tone there.

  It seriously made me question my dedication to cutting back on carbs. I hadn’t done it yet. I was just about to when I got the news of my condition. Now it seemed pointless. Carbs were delicious, especially Spaghetti Aglio, and I didn’t have the rest of time to enjoy them.

  I slipped on my boots with the same appreciation for fit and form.

  “You can turn around,” I said.

  He turned and a smile crept across his face.

  “What? You prefer me clothed?”

  He thought I was too curvy. He thought I was fat. Great. He’d seen me nekkers and now anything that could have been was over. I wasn’t like the starving supermodels he dated back on Earth.

  You wouldn’t catch me skimping on carbs. Especially if it over between us.

  “I find you compelling with or without clothes, Ms. Gabarro. Exquisitely so.”

  Okay, that was a good sign. I’d have to reconsider the carb thing. I hoped any extended carb diet wouldn’t take much from backside. It was a little too round for my tastes, but Noah had mentioned it several times. I could keep it for him. If it gave me some leverage.

  Cora, you hyperactive rabbit, get back on track.

  “Why did you invite me here? Was it really for an interview?”

  “I wanted you here, Cora.”

  “Did you want me here? Or did it want me here?”

  His eyes dropped to the ground and his shook his head. “I can't be sure.”

  “Great. How can I trust what you're saying to me now? How can I trust you at all, Noah?”

  “I don't know that you can.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Noah met my eyes with tears in his own. “What did I, it, do to you?”

  “It tried to rape me, Noah. Your body tried to take mine.”

  “I’m so sorry.” He swept me into his embrace and hugged me tight. It was a wonder his touch didn't frighten me. This was my Noah. His strength was a reassuring foundation in an otherwise unbalanced world. Noah’s comfort was needed healing, but I couldn't help but wonder how long before the alien returned.

  The confusion in my chest burst like an over-filled balloon. Tears splashed down my cheeks and trickled into my mouth.

  Noah lifted my chin, his breath drawing in mine. The air between us a shared necessity. With infinite tenderness, he lowered his lips to mine. All the cares and fears of the world melted away. There was only his mouth on mine, his tongue on mine.

  Home.

  Nothing else mattered.

  A rising need clawed in my belly. It swirled between my legs and danced up and down my spine. I was quickly transforming into a warm, wet puddle in his arms. Like a sea creature with no bones or hard edges. I simply drifted on his currents, being nursed by them.

  After a time, his lips parted from mine. My lungs collapsed as the broken seal between us sucked the pressure out.

  “I need you, Cora,” he said.

  They were the four most beautiful words I’d ever heard.

  “I’m yours, Noah. I want to give you everything.”

  Thunder rolled through his eyes. His desire an obvious storm.

  He gripped my arms and dropped back a step.

  “We can't. Not yet, Cora. As much as I want you right now, how can I be sure it's not what the alien wants?”

  I wasn't sure I cared just then. This was my Noah and so what if the alien was making him like me a little more. Even as I thought the words, I knew Noah was right. I wanted him to desire me because that's what he wanted, not because some alien wanted to mate me. Wanted to seed me with… what did that thing say?

  “Cosmo, when alien was controlling Noah's body, what did it say to me?”

  “Wretched human, I will seed you first. In time, you will all become hosts. Humans will serve their purpose and then pass into extinction.”

  The weight of the world slammed down on my chest. Did that mean what I thought it meant? Sure the words were obvious but all of them together wasn’t something you considered on a normal day.

  I wasn’t having a normal day.

  Noah’s expression turned grim. “The extinction of the human race? I think we have to take it at its word. The stakes are too high to do otherwise.”

  “How do we beat it? How do we get it out of you?”

  “I don't know. I've tried everything I could think of to find it. If I can't identify where it resides in my body or mind, I don't think there would be any way to figure out how to remove it.”

  Even if we could find it, I knew all too well that didn't necessarily mean being able to destroy it. My doctors knew exactly where my problem was, but it was inoperable. Any attempts to remove it would have guaranteed my untimely death.

  More untimely.

  Noah lifted his gaze to mine and his pupils dilated as his mind returned from whatever dark corner it had just visited. “I may have a way.”

  “What? I can help you. Tell me what to do. I'll do it.”

  “You can't help with this, Ms. Gabarro.”

  “You're not alone Noah. I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere.”

  Sometimes you say things with the best of intentions. But intentions don't always manifest in reality, especially when others don’t share them.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Noah, I need to inform you—“ Cosmo's odd cadence echoed in the air.

  “Not now, Cos.” Noah looked at me. “I can run more tests. Take a look at the data again. There's got to be something I missed. Maybe a sub resonant pattern in the electrical activity of my brain.”

  I had no idea how all that might work. I just knew I wanted my Noah, and I wanted that alien to get the fuck out of Dodge. I’d happily choke the life out of it if that didn't simultaneously mean choking the life out of the man too.

  I hated problems without solutions. It's like life put them there as a big middle finger. The giant smack down that always seemed to come when things were going well. My life was reasonably on track. In my final year of my degree. Ready to tackle the world.

  And then my giant smack down came. My problem without a solution.

  “Noah, I must inform you—“

  “Quiet, Cosmo!”

  Noah pinched the bridge of his nose, deep in thought.

  The hopelessness of it all swept over me. Like a giant wave submerging everything in its path. I kicked for the surface and pushed through the open air. I sucked in a deep breath. And found little relief.

  The room wavered and then reformed. A tight stinging pain pricked the center of my forehead, between my eyebrows. I sucked in another breath and something felt wrong. An invisible vice squeezed my chest.

  What was happening?

  Was I reaching the limits of what a body and mind could handle? My thoughts were molasses, oozing around and taking forever to get anywhere. I didn't feel so good.

  Cosmo broke the silence.

  “Noah, I am required to inform you that the oxygen levels in Orbital One have dropped from their optimum level of 21% to 18.362%. They are continuing to fall.”r />
  Noah snapped out of his reverie and looked up in no particular direction. “What's the problem?”

  “I have yet to determine the source of the problem. There appears to be an unregistered subroutine operating independently in my circuits that may be responsible.”

  “Unregistered?” Noah asked. “How is that possible?”

  “I have no answer for that question.”

  “Can you shut it down?”

  “My attempts thus far have failed. It is coded in an unfamiliar language making an interface difficult.”

  Noah returned his gaze to me. His brows drew together.

  “Cora, are you feeling okay?”

  The weakness in my knees and tightness in my chest were a clear answer.

  “No, not at all.”

  The lights flickered. The dim blue veins in the walls flickering to black.

  “Noah, the unregistered subroutine is pushing into other systems. It has blocked me out of a number of life support functions. I am working to secure all systems.”

  “Partition and secure the re-entry capsule’s systems. Now.”

  “Yes, Noah. The control systems are now partitioned and secure.”

  Noah scooped me up with little effort. He was a man that could handle a woman with curves. He could handle me anytime.

  “I have to get you out of here,” he said. “Cos, open the door.”

  The door squished open and Noah took off with me in his arms. He ran like an Olympian, like a being born to the wind. He leapt through bulkheads and darted around corners. It would’ve been exhilarating if heavy dread wasn't sinking my heart.

  We made it to service corridor one and he freed a hand as we started up the ladder.

  “Where are we going Noah?”

  “We have to get off the station. The alien is trying to subdue us. Knock us out so that it can regain control. We can't let that happen Cora. Not with the fate of humanity on the line.”

  “Noah, oxygen levels have fallen to twelve percent.”

  My weight fell away as we ascended up the shaft. Unfortunately my sense of balance did too. The air felt starved, impossibly thin and unsatisfying. I took a huge breath and got no relief. Darkness crept into the edges of my vision. So this was a bona fide space emergency. The kind that killed you.