Talis

Chapter Two

 

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"We should have gone back," I whispered.

"Hmmm?" Christian sighed, almost asleep.

"To Los Angeles," I said. "We should have gone there just to make sure."

"Kelly," my husband yawned, "it's almost midnight."

"They could still be alive."

"No." Christian turned in the dark and hugged me. "They couldn't."

"You don't know," I said. "I saw on the TV today, they found three people in Chicago. They were in a basement eating rats."

"You shouldn't watch that stuff."

"There's nothing else to do." I frowned.

"You could always go back to school."

"And be the only married girl in tenth grade?" I asked sarcastically. "Let them put me in gym class with the boys?"

"Hmph, you'd like that, huh?" Christian chuckled and he snuggled up against me nicely, sliding his hand over my tummy, beneath my thin nightie.

"I could find a job maybe," I said. "Like at the mall or something."

"Yeah, that's a good idea," he murmured into my hair. "You should look around."

"Are you sure?" I asked him, stretching my arms and reaching for the headboard of our new bed.

Stretching felt good and I even pointed my toes as Christian's hand went higher, finding my small tits and he pinched the left one gently. I wasn't tired at all and I knew Christian was wide awake now, all he ever needed was a little push and I'd gotten pretty good at that. He probably thought this was his own idea and I smiled to myself.

"I'm sure, baby." Christian pinched my nipple harder and I arched my back off the mattress for him. "You need a job to keep you out of trouble."

"Ha!" I laughed and then gasped as he tugged my nipple hard, pulling my hot flesh taut. "Do you want to tie me up again?"

"Your hands?" Christian asked and I nodded against his cheek and lips.

"My legs too," I whispered. "Up high, like last time."

"You like that stuff, don't you?"

"Yeah." I swallowed hard and I'd never thought about it before, not until after we'd gotten to Denver a couple weeks before.

Christian tied my hands to the headboard, to the big round knobs at either side of it, so that my arms were stretched wide apart. He used some ugly neckties I'd bought just for that, ninety-nine cents each in a red tag clearance bin, and my husband had thought I'd been crazy at the time. He pushed my legs up and tied them the same way. It felt uncomfortable as my knees were touching my shoulders and my legs were spread so wide that the tendons in my thighs ached. I liked it though. I liked it a lot and I was already hot inside and out, my girlish cock straining in my panties for release and my nipples throbbing with excitement.

"Are you okay?" Christian asked me and the bedside lamps were on now. It was midnight.

"Yeah," I breathed.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked, sitting on his knees close to my upturned ass, stroking my thighs slowly.

"Spank me," I told him, lifting my head as best I could to see his brown eyes. "With the belt, okay?"

"Kelly…" Christian sucked his top lip and then nodded.

"Good." I smiled at him. "Yeah."

Christian enjoyed some of this, but not all of it. I wasn't even sure if I enjoyed it as much as I told him I did, but it made me feel better. He used his leather belt, his old one because it was soft and supple. He doubled it over in his fist, spanking my panty covered ass with slow, deliberate strokes.

"Ummm…uh…yeah…" I moaned, breathing through my nose mostly, gasping sometimes, but Christian never spanked me very hard. Not like my dad used to.

"You're alright?" he asked.

"More," I breathed. "Harder…Call me a faggot too…"

"No."

Christian spanked me a little harder, but he wasn't going to call me names. My ass burned from the belt, the tension building with every stroke and I made a perfect target like that. I could see his cock hard for me as it bobbed and weaved with his movement. He knelt naked and flushed, spanking me with sharp stinging slaps to punctuate our breathing.

"I'm a cocksucker," I whispered, closing my eyes tightly. "I'm a sissy faggot. I'm a boy, not a girl. Queer bastard…Faggot…Pansy homo…"

"Enough!" Christian stopped and I realized I'd started crying and I blinked at him.

"Why'd you stop?" I asked. "I like it."

"I don't." Christian tossed the belt to the floor. "You're not any of those things, Kelly."

"I know."

"It won't bring your parents back," he sighed, putting his hands on my butt and massaging me, feeling the heat left there by his belt. "You don't have to feel guilty about what happened."

"I don't."

"Then what is it?" Christian asked me gently. "Tell me. Talking will work better than this, I promise."

"I don't know." I took a deep breath and my penis was going soft, even though his hands felt really good.

"Yeah, you do."

Christian had moved close to me again, squeezing my ass through the thin white cotton; his thumbs came together, rubbing my balls. He'd have to rip my panties soon, it was the only way to get them off now that I'd been bound to the headboard. We were both ready for it too. He lowered his face to my crotch, licking and kissing my cock and balls and anus through the thin fabric between us. My asshole quivered beneath him and my leg muscles were drawn tight as I strained against my bonds helplessly. God! I loved this, if he only he would play the role I wanted him to.

"Tear them," I breathed and Christian sighed, knowing I wasn't ready to talk just yet.

He took a bit of cotton in his teeth, biting to make a small hole and then using his fingers to widen it with a soft ripping sound. He tore them completely and his tongue quickly found my vulnerable asshole. Christian licked and kissed me, making me gasp with delight and forget everything else but our lovemaking. His nose pressed against my balls while he sought to worm his tongue past my tight sphincter. I wanted to hold his head and feel his thick black hair under my fingers, but I was caught and bound and I enjoyed that part of it as well.

Christian ate my ass for a long while, as if punishing me with pleasure for the things I wanted him to do and say. My pretty penis had grown hard again, aching with precum running freely from the tip to spill onto my satin nightie where it bunched up on my tummy. He wetted a finger in his mouth and pressed the digit to my asshole and then inside, enjoying my low moaning as he fingered me slowly in and out. His lips found my scrotum, my soft hairless sack, and Christian drew it into his mouth, sucking my balls while he finger fucked my ass.

"Oh yessss…" I hissed between clenched teeth, jerking my body uselessly so that the bed creaked beneath us.

"Kelly," he breathed my name, letting my balls fall from his lips, and I knew he was in love.

He reached for my cock, pulling it back so it pointed upward and he could mouth me there as well. Christian sucked my penis hard, moving his tight lips up and down the pink shaft while he stretched my asshole with another finger, working two of them inside my hungry hole. I came quickly, too quickly, with a high pitched squeal that might have made us giggle any other time.

My swollen cock pulsed inside the warmth of Christian's mouth and he didn't swallow, but rather collected my orgasm behind his pursed lips and then brought them to my well stretched anus. I did giggle then, watching as he spit my cum out slowly, working my semen into my ass with his fingers and tongue and making a sexy mess of it.

I was wet and sloppy with saliva and sperm; and whatever else Christian had done, he'd prepared me well for his cock as he pushed into me hard and fast. My orgasm became our lubricant and that felt insanely good as I was only just coming down from the climax he'd given me. My asshole protested, but only weakly and what pain I felt was quickly replaced with the sheer ecstasy of being filled completely with my husband's cock.

He squatted above me on his feet with knees bent, fucking straight down into my ass. It seemed awkward and I'm sure it would have appeared almost ludicrous as Christian had to brace himself with his palms against the wall, but it felt amazing for both of us and all we could see was each other.

He came quickly after such long foreplay, and Christian groaned with pleasure, shoving his cock inside me until his heavy balls rested on my ass. I felt his sperm spreading inside me, drawn deeper into my bowels by my position, but maybe I only imagined that. It felt like it anyway and we were both panting for air and smiling.

"God!" I giggled, "I'm full of cum."

"Yeah, you are," Christian agreed and he pulled out of my ass slowly and then got on his knees, putting his face close to my asshole.

"What're you doing?"

"Looking." He smiled and then I felt his fingers inside me, feeling my stretched rectum holding his semen like a vase.

"Is it gross?" I wondered.

"What?" Christian rebuked me with a look. "There's nothing gross about having sex with you."

"I wish I had a real pussy," I sighed. "Would you like me better?"

"If you were a real girl?" Christian shook his head. "I love you the way you are. If you were different…"

"What?" I asked him.

"I wouldn't have met you."

"Yeah." I smiled. "That's kind of weird, huh?"

"You're perfect just the way you are, Kelly."

"But I need bigger tits!" I giggled and Christian nodded.

"Yeah, that would make you even more perfect," he agreed and then he kissed my gaping asshole, shoving his tongue inside the spermy mess he'd made and I rolled my big blue eyes.

"You're such a fag sometimes!" I teased him.

"Hmmmph…" Christian sighed. He'd eat my cum filled ass until he got hard again, I knew, and then we'd do it all over again.

=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

"I got some bruises," I said taking a birth control pill with some orange juice. "People are gonna wonder."

"Where?" Christian asked as he fixed his tie. He'd gone from being a television producer to an assistant programming director at a local television station.

It didn't pay as much, but he said it was sort of the same job and we were doing okay. The government had been as good as their word and provided us with guaranteed loans for a house in the suburbs and free money to furnish it with. Not a lot of money, but enough for what we needed. Being survivors, we'd gotten a lot of donations from people all over the country too. I had clothes anyway and the radios and televisions worked again, and like everyone else we were always watching the news.

"Here." I held out my wrists and there were some black and blue marks from being tied down.

"Hmmm…" Christian frowned and took my hands in his and kissed my wrists. "We'll have to be more careful."

"It's not bad though," I said. "I kinda like it. Looks cool."

"You're a wild child, Kell," he said, giving me a kiss on the mouth.

"And you're gonna be late."

"Yeah, shit." Christian frowned at his watch. "I really miss my car."

Everybody missed their cars, according to the news. There were suicides because people couldn't drive anymore. All the gas went to vital services, like the police and ambulances and whatever. There were a lot more busses around now and they were free, so I guess that was okay. After awhile people would probably forget they'd even had their own cars once. The environmentalists were happy, but only quietly because nobody likes getting punched in the nose.

I had a new bicycle, a real mountain bike thing with twelve speeds that I didn't really know how to use. I liked riding around though, except I tired quickly. Christian said it was because we were in the mountains, a lot higher up than we'd been in Los Angeles, so the air was thinner. Whatever the reason, I was usually breathing hard after just a little exercise, but it was fun and I had to enjoy the summer while it lasted. Everybody said Denver got pretty cold in the winter.

I rode my bike about a mile to a small strip mall, not much of one, and the store fronts were all outside. It was sort of a big U-shaped building with about twenty stores that opened up into the parking lot in the middle. Nobody parked in the parking lot anymore, of course, so a flea market had been set up, which was really a black market, if you were cool. The police looked the other way mostly because the stuff they were selling was the stuff people needed. Like batteries, the government rationed those too. And coffee and sugar, a lot of imported stuff that you wouldn't even think about. A pound of sugar cost like twenty dollars now and coffee was even more expensive than that.

It wasn't because they stopped growing the stuff, or making it, the reason I'd heard was that the system countries used to move products back and forth had broken. Like nobody really knew what a dollar was worth anymore and so the news said a lot of people were getting all their money out of banks and buying gold. That just made gold more expensive and the dollar worth even less, or something. I should have paid more attention in high school and Christian really wanted me to enroll for the upcoming school year. That would be so weird though.

Everything seemed weird, like stuff you wouldn't even think about. Religion? That was way trippy and I'd never really gone to church or anything, but now everybody wondered where the aliens fit into the bible. Did God give man dominion over the other planets too, or just this one? Maybe he gave the aliens dominion over everything? Did they even believe in God? I didn't know. The Pope didn't know either. The only ones who did know were the Muslims and they hated the aliens so they said God hated them too. They were still fighting them, except the aliens never bothered to show up, so mostly it was just a bunch of angry people burning cardboard flying saucers in Iran or someplace.

That's the thing, see? Nobody even knew what these aliens looked like. I'd seen a UFO though, so I knew they were real, but a lot of people hadn't. So there were some people saying there weren't any aliens at all. They said that the government had dropped nuclear bombs or something on Los Angeles and the other cities just so they could take over like in the 1984 book. Those people tended to get arrested quick and nobody ever heard from them again, but that made more people want to believe them. It was all insane.

But the craziest part was how normal everything seemed. People went to work and did all the regular stuff, but it felt like we were walking on eggshells too. Everyone was frightened and still in shock, really. Like it wasn't uncommon to see someone just start crying for no reason. It would take a long time before people started to get over what had happened, but we tried to. We pretended like we were okay and that's the worst part. How every time someone laughed, it sounded kind of forced. Smiles came harder and went away faster. If you were watching television and it went blank for a second, your heart stopped, or if there was silence on the radio, like between songs…You just held your breath until the next one started.

As soon as I came home from somewhere, night or day, the first thing I did was turn on a light. I just wanted to see it work and know things were okay. Mostly we left at least one light on all the time anyway, to tell the truth. Life did go on though and while I cried every single day, Christian was the reason I didn't fall into a really deep hole of depression. He loved me and I loved him and so…

"What are you taking?" the nurse at the health clinic asked me.

"Um, Norgestrel," I told her as she looked at the papers I'd filled out.

"Do you have your prescription?"

"No, that's why I'm here," I said and lowered my voice. "I'm from Los Angeles and…"

"Oh." She blinked at me and she was older, with kind of graying red hair.

"…so I don't have it."

"Okay, well, you need to be looked at by a doctor first," the nurse said. "Have you ever had a pap smear? You left that blank."

"No, I never did." I frowned. "Do I need one?"

"No, you don't." She looked at me funny and I swallowed hard. "You're not…Come with me."

She knew, I could see it in her eyes and I felt like running, but I didn't. I followed her into an empty examination room, walking past half a dozen other girls, mostly in their teens and early twenties. They'd come to the women's health clinic for birth control like me, but for entirely different reasons. And I'd been busted.

"You're not a girl are you, sweetie?" the nurse asked me once the door was closed and I shook my head.

"No. I mean, I am…but…no," I admitted weakly.

I looked down at my shoes, brand new like the plaid skirt I wore. New like the yellow blouse and my underwear beneath, my bra and panties. Everything was new and I felt new, and I just wanted a new prescription so I could keep taking female hormones, estrogen and progestin.

"How old are you?" She looked at my paperwork. "Are you really sixteen?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "I didn't lie about anything else."

"And you're taking birth control because…"

"I want bigger breasts," I answered, feeling my face redden. "I want to be a girl."

"Have you gotten any counseling? Ever talked to anyone about this?"

"No."

"Are you thinking about having a sex change eventually?" The nurse sat down and she pointed at an empty chair for me.

"I don't know." I shrugged. "My husband, he, um…he likes me sorta the way I am."

"You're married?" The woman smiled and she had nice green eyes.

"Yeah, not like in a church or anything, but…"

"I understand," she said.

"I was going to see a doctor about hormone treatment, but then…" I cleared my throat, "…you know."

"You can see a doctor here for that," the nurse told me. "But you're going to have to get counseling as well."

"Why?" I stared at her. "I'm normal."

"I know. I'm not saying you're not, but there are factors involved, psychological factors which can affect your health."

"I don't understand," I sighed. "I just want to look nice."

"You do look nice, Kelly," she said. "You're very pretty and I'm sure…"

The door opened then, as much to the nurse's surprise as mine, and a man stood there, tall and thin and dressed like a funeral director.

"You can't come in here!" The nurse blinked at him and she looked a little offended actually.

"That's her," the man said and I noticed for the first time that he held a small device, like a pocket calculator or something.

"What are doing?" the nurse demanded, and we were both standing up. "Who are you?"

Two other men were there as well, and when the undertaker stepped back, they stepped forward to fill the open doorway.

"Kelly Michaels?" one of them asked me.

"Yes?" I frowned at them.

"We need you to come with us, please." They were large men, one white and the other black, with short hair and unhappy faces. They looked like football players, except they had suits on.

"Why? Where?" I wasn't moving.

"That'll be explained later," the black man said. "Would you come with us, please?"

"Can I call my husband?" I asked them softly.

I'd become frightened again, almost shaking, and my first thought was that they'd found out I wasn't Christian's wife at all. They were arresting me and going to move me someplace else, wherever they'd put all the J's, and I didn't want to go.

"Where are you taking her? Who are you people?" the nurse asked, but she seemed frightened too.

"FBI, ma'am," the black man said and he showed her his badge. "Would you step back, please?"

"You'll be able to contact your husband later," the white man told me. "Let's go."

"Am I under arrest?" I asked them. "What did I do?"

"FBI?" The nurse looked from the men to me and back.

The white agent stepped into the room and took me by the arm, not painfully, but firmly and I knew he wasn't going to let me go. He tugged me towards the door and I had no choice but to follow reluctantly. I looked at the nurse.

"Call him for me?" I asked her desperately. "The number's on the paper…Please?"

"I will," she promised, following us until the FBI agents took me outside and into the sunshine.

They put me in the back of a car, which surprised me. I hadn't been in a car since Christian and I had left his Corvette sitting in the middle of an empty highway outside Bakersfield. There were very few of them around and that just made me more nervous because it meant whatever was going on had to be serious. All kinds of thoughts filled my head and the one I clung to was that maybe my parents were alive.

The two big men sat in the front and the thin man joined me in the back. None of them were smiling and the doors locked automatically with a dull thudding sound that made me jerk.

"What did I do?" I asked, looking at the man beside me and he narrowed his eyes, looking at me like some sort of bug.

"You didn't do anything," he said.

"Where are we going then?" I swallowed hard.

"We don't have much time," he told me. "How old are you?"

"What?" I blinked at him.

"How old are you?" he asked again and we were driving now, pulling out of the parking lot, driving past the people at the flea market as they stared at the car.

"Sixteen."

"Tell me about your medical history." He opened a notebook. "Have you ever been sick?"

"Yeah." I stared at him. "Of course."

"What did you have?"

"I dunno, um…" I shrugged, "…chicken pox. I had colds before. Why?"

"Were you ever hospitalized for anything?"

"No. I don't think so."

"You don't have a medical condition, or physical abnormality?"

"What?" I almost laughed. "Yeah. I got seven toes on my right foot."

"Really?" he asked me seriously and I did laugh then.

"God!" I shook my head and I almost told him I had a dick, but I wasn't gonna say that and I didn't think it was abnormal anyway.

"How about school?" he continued, "What were your grades like?"

"I dunno, C's mostly, some B's I guess. I got an A once in my home economics class." I watched him write that down. "I made a dress, it was nice."

"Talents? Are you especially adept at anything?"

"Adept? What are you looking for?" I asked, feeling more frustrated now than anything else. Frustrated and confused. "I'm just me."

"I'm trying to find out what makes you different from about fifty million other people, Miss Michaels."

"It's Mrs. Michaels," I corrected him. "Maybe that makes me different."

"No." He shook his head. "That's not it."

"Fuck," I breathed. "I'm not different."

"Yes, you are." The man stared at me. "But we don't know why."

"Well, it's a mystery, Shaggy," I said and I was going to cry. I felt scared and angry and stressed because this wasn't supposed to happen. I didn't even know what 'this' was.

I crossed my arms over my chest while the man kept asking me the same questions over and over. He ignored mine and I'd gotten really frustrated by the time we reached the airport. Enough so that I didn't even know we were there until the car stopped near an air force plane. It looked much like the one I'd ridden before with Christian, except this one might have been a little smaller maybe.

"You said I could call my husband." I stared at the ladder leading up to the open doorway of the plane.

"Let's go. Up the stairs, please." The black guy had taken me by the arm.

"This is so unfair." I licked my lips and looked around, but there wasn't anyone else. Nobody was coming to save me. "Just tell me where I'm going."

"We don't know," the white man told me and the tall skinny guy watched me from inside the car.

"I bet he does," I said and I gave the guy the finger and started going up.

"Kelly Michaels?" another man asked me, standing just inside the doorway with a clipboard and this was getting old fast.

"Yeah," I said with a frown.

"We've got a seat for you right there." He pointed and there were a lot of empty seats.

The plane was spacious, like a regular passenger jet would be if it was all business class instead of coach. The seats were large and had a lot of room between one row and the next, but there were only about a dozen of us scattered throughout the cabin. We were all between about sixteen and twenty-five maybe, male and female both, healthy and confused and not saying much. The man with the clipboard, who looked like he was in the army except he wore blue coveralls, had been joined by another man. The two of them walked around, making sure we were all strapped in with our seat belts fastened. They ignored our questions, such as they were.

"Where are we going?" a guy asked, a little older than me maybe and sitting two rows back.

"Forget it, man," another guy said, sort of an older, hippie looking guy sitting a couple rows in front of me and on the other side of the center aisle. "They won't tell you anything."

"Why not?" I wondered, having a lot of questions of my own.

"Cause they're Nazis," he replied loudly and pointedly at one of the men who ignored him. "We're kidnapped now. Disappeared, you know?"

"Disappeared?" I swallowed hard. "What does that mean?"

"Don't you watch the news? People are disappearing all the time!" He looked at me and his nose was pierced with a gold ring. "This is how it happens…"

"What? Shut up!" some woman said and it looked like she'd been crying.

"Cool it, buddy," another man said, early twenties and sitting way behind me.

"…In broad daylight," the guy kept talking. "In front of your friends. In front of your kids. Nobody can stop them. Nobody will ever see us again."

About that time the air force guys decided to give the man an injection of something. To calm him down, they said. He put up a little fight, but in the end he took his shot anyway, and it just scared the rest of us like you wouldn't believe. After that he stayed very quiet. It was a long time before anybody said another word.

"Hey." The young man several rows behind me had moved up and now he leaned forward, whispering to me. "Kelly, right? I heard the guy say your name. I'm Matt."

"Hi," I said, turning my head and kind of wondering why he'd be talking. Nobody else spoke, but it looked like most of them were sleeping anyway.

"Hi." He smiled and it was a nice one. "Did they tell you anything? The guys who picked you up?"

"No." I shook my head. "They just asked a lot of questions."

"Me too," he said and paused for a second, so I thought Matt was done. "Denver looked kinda nice. I've never been there before."

"Yeah?" I wasn't sure what that meant exactly. "Where are you from?" I asked, expecting him to say Los Angeles probably, or maybe New York or Chicago, but he surprised me.

"Boise," Matt said and the look on my face made him smile. "You know, Idaho? Potatoes?"

"Oh." I felt my face redden. "Sorry, I just…I thought you were, um…like me."

"Like you?" He gave me a curious look and we hit a little air turbulence so his head sorta rattled between my seat and the empty one next to me. "Wait a sec…" He changed seats, getting out of his and then squeezing past me so he could sit next to the window. "There, now we can talk."

He kept smiling and so I smiled back, thinking Matt looked pretty cute, but that just made me seriously miss Christian. I wondered what my husband was doing and if the nurse had called him like she promised. I hoped so. I hoped he could find me and get me back. This had to be some kind of mistake or something and I kept thinking of what that crazy guy had been saying and it still scared me. More than ever.

"So, what did you mean when you said, you thought I was like you?" Matt asked me and he'd turned a little, leaning against the molded plastic wall next to him.

"I thought you came from LA or something," I said. "I mean, I thought everyone here was, you know…"

"A survivor?" Matt nodded. "That's where you're from?"

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry. I thought you were from Denver," he said, looking genuinely apologetic, but he didn't need to be.

"No," I replied. "I'm not. My husband and I were relocated and…"

"Husband?" He made a face and looked at my hands, but I didn't have a ring yet. "You're married?"

"Yeah," I said, looking into Matt's brown eyes without flinching. I was so used to the lie after just a couple weeks and really, it didn't feel like a lie at all to me.

"I never woulda figured that," he said. "I guess I should have though."

"Why?" I laughed lightly.

"Because you're so beautiful."

"Come on!" I rolled my eyes.

"Seriously." Matt grinned. "You're gorgeous. I just…Married, okay. That sucks."

"Yeah, yeah." I giggled. "That's…Okay, thanks."

He'd laid it on kind of thick for a second there, but I won't say I didn't like it. There wasn't any way I'd cheat on Christian, of course, but being talked to by a guy, a cute guy…I dunno. Probably I just really needed something like that right then, you know? Something that didn't scare me, or raise a bunch of questions that nobody could answer. It seemed almost normal, except for where we were and why and all that. I missed normal a lot.

"Anytime," Matt said and I became suddenly aware of his eyes on my legs, on my bare thighs beneath the hem of my skirt. It had ridden up a little and I wanted to pull it down, but I didn't want him to see me doing it for some reason.

"Uhmmm, so you're not married, I guess?" I asked, just because I really didn't know what else to say.

"Me? No. I go to the junior college," he said with a shrug. "Mechanic's school, you know, fixing cars."

"Cool." I nodded. "There aren't a lot of cars around anymore though."

"Yeah, I know!" Matt snorted. "That sucks too. I have a '72 Nova I built out sitting in my driveway with exactly one gallon of gas in it."

"A what?" I didn't really know much about cars at all.

"I just start it up once in awhile, for a minute or two," Matt sighed. "I put my life into that car."

"My husband's car is in a ditch," I said. "The army made him leave it."

"What kinda car?"

"A Corvette," I said. "One of those old ones, like when they first started making them."

"Really? What, like a '57 or something?" Matt looked excited and I shrugged.

"I guess," I replied, laughing at my own ignorance. "I don't know. It was a convertible. That's all I know."

"Well, any guy that drives a Vette is okay with me," Matt decided. "I like his taste."

I blushed when he said that because it seemed pretty obvious the man was talking about more than just my husband's car.

"It's nice making a friend," Matt said. "I mean, I don't believe what that guy was saying or anything, but…"

"You don't?"

"Nah. We'll get back home. What do they want us for? Probably some test or something, I don't know."

"But they'll let us go home, right?" I asked.

"Yeah." He nodded. "Hell yeah, but that's why I'm glad I met you. Wherever we're going, I know I won't know anybody there."

"Me too," I said and I'd started feeling scared again and probably Matt could tell.

"You know me now though, right?" He put his arm around me, although I was hardly aware of it at the time. It just happened.

"Yeah." I smiled and then I felt his fingers sorta squeezing my shoulder, like drawing me a little closer and I felt a bit confused.

"We'll just stick together, okay? You and me Kelly," he whispered and I looked into his soft brown eyes.

"Ummm…" I swallowed hard and I wasn't sure what we were doing. I knew what it felt like, but I'd only had one boyfriend and I didn't know this guy at all, and…

"Shhh…It's okay," Matt said softly and his other hand, his left hand, touched my face, pulling some blonde hair back. "You don't have to be scared, Kelly."

"I'm marriemmpphh…" I was being kissed and it came as a surprise. It shouldn't have been. I'd seen it coming, like totally, but still it surprised me when Matt's mouth found mine and I just sat there like a statue while his tongue played with my lips.

"See?" He licked his lips and smiled. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

"Don't…" I fumbled for words. "Don't do that to me. Please?"

"Why? It's good, right?" He stroked my shoulder, pulling me to stay close. "I just want to have some fun. We're not bothering anyone. Look, they're all sleeping."

"How can you do this?" I wondered, blinking and trying to understand, not only what I was feeling, but how he could be so calm. So…Normal.

"What do you mean?" Matt asked, reaching for my hair again with his right hand and I tilted my head away from it.

"I mean, we're on an airplane," I said. "We're kidnapped, or something. We don't know where were going, or why…"

"I just go with the flow, Kelly." The young man chuckled softly. "You should try it."

He kissed me again and I brought my hands up between us. He'd pulled me around to face him, so much as we could in those seats, and I pressed my fists to his chest. But his mouth found mine, his tongue slipping between my lips and somehow…I felt so confused. I didn't know what I was doing. The confusion and stress, the frustration, it all seemed to overwhelm me in the form of Matt and his relentless insistence on touching me. Kissing me. Holding me. And I did want to be held, I couldn't deny it. I felt small and vulnerable and I needed a protector.

My mouth opened and I might have moaned, or sighed perhaps, with the realization that I wasn't fighting. I wasn't exactly eager for what was happening, but I wasn't kicking and screaming either. I let Matt do what he wanted with me. He kissed me deeply and my own tongue moved against his. My fists became palms and my palms pushed against Matt's chest, but not enough, not away. I touched him too, that's all, and it became an invitation for more.

"Oh, please…No…" I whispered, feeling guilt rise up like bile in my throat.

"Shhh…" Matt's hand went to my small breasts, moving back and forth from one to the other.

I was still dressed, but I didn't feel like it. He pushed and pulled at my bra, a training bra of all things, moving it across my flushed skin with his attentions. My blouse fit me loosely and the man didn't bother with the buttons; he slipped his hand beneath it and then under my bra as well.

"Oh God," I breathed, breaking another kiss as I felt his fingers find my left nipple.

It had become swollen and tender, burning cold with excitement and if he was disappointed with my lack of breasts, Matt didn't show it. He pinched my nipple hard, making me wince and draw a sharp breath, but I didn't pull back. His palm pressed against me, the pressure making me close my eyes and drag a deep breath into my aching lungs.

"You're so beautiful," he breathed into my ear, his cheek rubbing mine. "See what you do to me?"

"What?" I blinked, feeling numb and my head spun as he took my left hand and put it on the lump of his cock. "N-No…I don't want to," I protested, but I didn't move my hand and Matt silenced me with another kiss.

I felt like I was melting inside, with my hand pressed against his trousers, feeling his manhood swollen and pulsing weakly with excitement. My body burned, my tits especially as Matt continued to massage my nipples, rubbing them with his thumbs, pinching them and making me shiver. And kissing. We were making out, there's no other word for it. I'd opened for him completely, our tongues moving back and forth from his mouth to mine. I had my left hand on his shoulder for some reason, clutching at the guy while he seduced me.

"I…I can't do this," I said, blinking and licking my bruised lips. "We have to stop."

"No. We don't have to do anything," he whispered and his hand moved from beneath my blouse to my bare thigh, sliding along the inside of my leg and working my skirt a little higher.

"Matt…Oh God, please…I'm married…"

"He'll never know, Kelly," Matt promised me. "Doesn't this feel good?"

"Yeah…" I sighed and then caught myself. "No! What am I doing?"

"Relaxing," he said. "Letting all that stress go away now."

His hand moved higher between my thighs and I knew my cock was hard. He'd feel it soon; his fingers were almost brushing my panties. I closed my legs, or tried to, and I reached down, but somehow none of that was working. Matt's tongue found my ear, tickling me and then he'd bite it, nibbling my ear lobe and sucking it for just a second. I still held his cock, gripping it through his pants and feeling it nice and hard now, thick as well. I was losing it completely, forgetting even my guilt as Matt made me feel so good in the middle of all that confusion.

"Yeah…" he sighed as his hand cupped my sex, but not the moist pussy he expected. My girlish cock filled the man's palm through the thin cotton of my underwear and I could feel his hesitation.

"Change your mind?" I asked softly, catching my breath and expecting him to leave. I felt almost relieved at that thought, almost rational.

"I just go with the flow," Matt said and he gave my cock a squeeze, a gentle, but deliberate caress, and then he kissed me again.

By the time our kiss was broken, I'd found the buttons on his pants and freed his swollen erection. It was thick, but not huge and not so long as Christian's, I thought. I'd never been with anyone else and I felt a rush of excitement to realize I actually held a stranger's cock in my small fist. I hadn't gone looking for another man, but now I had one and I pumped his cock slowly while Matt watched me and rubbed my straining penis through my panties.

"Suck it for me," he whispered. "I want to see it in your mouth, Kelly."

Matt pulled me down and I wasn't trying to stop him. His hand on my head was gentle, but firm. I leaned over and finally just slipped out of my seat altogether, so that I squeezed between the seats and knelt on the thin carpet. I kissed the tip of Matt's penis with pursed lips and then my tongue, teasing him for a moment before opening my mouth and letting his cockhead inside. His cock felt hot and heavy in my hand, and the velvet soft skin over the hard muscle beneath had a slightly salty flavor to it. He didn't seem so much different than Christian and I began sucking him eagerly as I welcomed the simple familiarity of giving a man head.

"Oh, that's it. You're so beautiful like that, Kelly," Matt whispered while he stroked my hair. "That feels great. Oh shit, baby…Suck it for me. Yeah."

I just kept my lips tight around him, bobbing my head up and down half his length. It was nice like that and I used my tongue to give him real pleasure, tickling the underside of his cock, washing around the smooth glans thoroughly. Spit and precum leaked from the corners of my mouth, the wetness that I couldn't swallow completely, and I used my hands to work it into his skin until his cock became glistening wet. I pulled his balls free as well; big ones too, plum sized orbs that surprised me with their size. I rolled them in my fingers and finally dropped my mouth lower to suckle them one at a time between my lips.

"Fuck, girl…" Matt groaned, forgetting all about my own penis apparently. "Suck my balls, you dirty slut. Goddamn!"

I went back to his cock a minute later, wrapping my lips around the shaft once again. He held my hair out of my face, staring at me as I slid up and down at a steady, deliberate pace. I'd squeeze the shaft and tug on his prick in time with my mouth, making the unavoidable sucking noises as I swallowed Matt's precum. I gave him a nice, long blowjob and he began lifting his hips as his orgasm grew closer.

"Jesus! Suck my cock," he moaned loudly. "Yeah! Ummm…Fuck! Wait…"

"Shhh…" I lifted my mouth, taking a deep breath and licking my lips.

"Don't worry," he breathed, grinning as he took advantage of our little pause to pull me upward. "Turn around, like this…I have to fuck you, Kelly."

"What? No…I can't do that!" I blinked at him and it sounded sort of silly saying no after sucking his cock.

"Yeah, you can. You've got me ready to explode." Matt tried to get me to sit on his lap, kind of, with my back to him. "Don't be a tease, Kelly. Let me fuck you."

"I don't want to! I'll suck you," I whispered, twisting my body, pulling my arms away as he'd grab for them. "Matt, stop! You can cum in my mouth, okay? I'll swallow."

"I want to cum in your ass," he insisted and then really grabbed me tight, pulling my back to his chest with his arms around my tummy. His knees were inside mine as we sat there, forcing my legs apart even while I squirmed in his grasp.

"No…" I said again, but Matt's right hand found my face and he turned my head, forcing another kiss between my lips.

He held me on his lap, with his cock trapped awkwardly between his belly and the small of my back. One of his hands held my body with his fingers digging into my tits, and the other holding my mouth to his. I kissed him back and that brief struggle had somehow made me even hotter. I liked it that Matt could make me do it, that he wasn't letting me say no. Somehow that made it really good for me and by the time our kiss ended I'd already lifted myself up, bending my knees as I leaned over the seatbacks in front of us.

Thank God we had a lot of room on that plane, enough room for us to do what we needed to anyway. I held my butt over Matt's hard cock while he tucked the hem of my skirt into the waistband so it would stay out of the way. He pulled my panties to the side and spread my ass with his thumbs. I had to reach between my thighs and feel for his cock, aiming it blindly for my tight little hole. For all my protesting earlier, I was the one doing it, feeding another man's cock into my boy pussy.

Guilt surged through me as I felt Matt's cockhead stretching my anus slowly. I was dry back there, but he wasn't. His penis had been leaking a lot of precum and along with my saliva that would be enough for us. I let the man pull me down by the hips, stretching my asshole with a dull burning sensation, but nothing more painful than that. It felt good being filled and I gasped with pleasure as my tender hole opened slowly beneath the constant pressure. I shut my eyes against the guilt, the betrayal of my husband, but I did want this. I needed it and when I had every inch of Matt's erection inside me, I rocked my ass in a delicious grind, desperate to feel his cock massaging my sensitive prostate.

I hugged the seatback in front of me and he held my hips, pushing and pulling me up and down. We were fucking, nothing more than that. His cock slid back and forth easily and when I looked over my shoulder I could see Matt smiling, staring at the place where his manhood disappeared into my flushed body. I'd lost my own erection by then, as often happened when I got fucked, but that didn't make it any less good for me. I had my orgasms, for lack of a better word. The emotional release that made my body shudder and my asshole spasm with rapid contractions.

"Oh fuck!" Matt gasped, unprepared for the sensation of my rectum squeezing his cock like a soft fist.

He came quickly after that, pulling me down hard, and I turned my head for his urgent kisses when I felt the first indistinct pulse of his semen being released into my bowels. I rolled my hips as if trying to screw myself down, tightening my tummy and thighs and squeezing my ass to milk the man's balls for every drop of cum. I nursed on his tongue like a small cock, pursing my lips around it while Matt's hands slid under my blouse and my hopelessly askew bra. He grabbed my tits and squeezed them hard, digging his fingers into my taut flesh and that too was a pleasure all its own.

My own cock jerked as well, surprising me as I hadn't even known it had gotten hard again. Hot semen spilled into my panties and I found myself with tear stained eyes, breathing hard and still impaled on Matt's swollen prick. He let me come down, both of us really, but mostly me. He let us relax for several minutes and regain our wits, and then he fucked me again.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The sun had set long before we landed and the world had been dark for some time. I'd cleaned myself up in the lavatory, ignoring one man's knowing smirk and another girl's frown as I went in. She looked about the same age as me, but not so pretty despite her big tits. I ignored the catty look with a little smile all my own, hoping she saw the cum stains on the insides of my thighs before I washed them away.

"Please remain seated with your seatbelts fastened until we're ready to disembark you," one of the air force men said, but not over a loudspeaker. He just said it loudly, cutting through our little whispers as we all looked at one another and wondered where we were. Some people asked questions, but there weren't any answers coming from the crew. Big surprise there.

It took a few minutes before the cabin door opened and looking out the small windows did us little good. Wherever we were, it didn't seem to be familiar to anyone, least of all me. We were called by name one at a time to leave the airplane. I was the first person called and I didn't know if that meant anything special or not.

"Kelly Michaels? This way please…"

I swallowed hard and felt scared, but there wasn't anything I could do about it. The only good thing I could think of was that they wouldn't fly me six or seven hours away from home just to kill me. Would they? I didn't think so, but I didn't even know who "they" were. I took one last look over my shoulder, finding Matt with my eyes and he smiled back, but I think even he was a little frightened. We were going with the flow now, weren't we?

The place was hot, that's the first thing I noticed. Hot and kind of humid, with thick, salty air. The ocean must have been nearby, a lot of ocean probably, but I couldn't hear or see it, only smell it. Mostly I was blinded by the really bright lights, huge towers of lights, like at a football stadium or something. They were all over, planted in fresh concrete seemingly at random, and we were at an airport, I guessed. I mean, we had to be since the jet had landed there, but it wasn't like a real airport with a terminal and a bunch of jets and a lot of people. This one seemed to be more like under construction or something. Half-finished buildings were in the distance and I could see people working on them. Trucks drove around, and bulldozers too. The place looked busy, but there weren't any other airplanes I could see, so maybe it wasn't an airport at all.

"Down here, watch your step," a man said, standing at the bottom of some steep stairs as I came down slowly. "Kelly Michaels?"

"Yes…Ow!" I jerked as he stabbed me with a pin or a needle maybe.

"Okay," he said, nodding at a little Gameboy looking thing while I rubbed my arm. "Have a seat. Are you hungry? Thirsty? Do you need a bathroom or anything?"

"Just answers," I said, giving him a dirty look. "Where am I?"

We were sitting on an electric cart, like a golf cart, and the man drove us away from the plane and towards the biggest building around. It looked brand new, all glass and steel mostly, or aluminum maybe. It was shiny anyway and big, like I said, a dozen stories high easily. All the lights were on too, from what I could tell, but there weren't any signs or anything, nothing to tell me what the building might be used for.

"Baja California," the man said, surprising me since I'd gotten so used to my questions being ignored. "The Pacific side, near Bahia Magdelina."

"That's a big help." I frowned. "Why?"

Things returned to normal then as he ignored my question completely, pretending like he was preoccupied with parallel parking that small cart in front of the building. He stepped off and made a little motion for me to do the same and it wasn't like I was gonna argue. What would be the point? So I got off the cart and we walked together into the building, which was spotless, cool, and pretty empty as far as I could tell. We were in a lobby, I guess, or something like one, and the man didn't hesitate but started walking us through the over-sized foyer and then down an extra-wide hallway to some elevators.

"Where is everyone?" I asked. The place seemed almost spooky, being so big and bright and utterly deserted.

"Working," the man said. "We have a lot to do."

"Oh." I nodded, like that made sense.

"Until three weeks ago, none of this was here," he told me, sounding almost proud of that.

"Wow," I said.

He pushed the up button, so that the arrow on it lit amber. There was a down button too, so I guessed there had to be a basement. It didn't take very long for the elevator to arrive and he swept his arm like we were on a first date, inviting me to enter first. That seemed silly and I didn't know what to make of this guy as he pushed the number 3 button.

"We're not going to the top?" I asked, just to mess with him a little.

"Do you want to?" he asked and I almost laughed because he looked serious.

"I don't know," I shrugged. "What's up there?"

"Nothing," he said.

"Fuck you." I looked down and he was pretty good at messing with people himself, I thought.

The elevator doors opened after a brief ride and I stepped out without waiting for his good manners. We stood in another empty hallway, but at least this one had a sign.

"Transport?" I asked him.

"That way," the man agreed, pointing to the left, the same way the arrow on the sign did.

"What's that mean?" I wondered.

I found out when we got there, passing through a set of automatic doors that whooshed open. It was chilly in that place, almost cold in fact, and I had little goosebumps on my arms suddenly. We were in a good sized room and I thought it looked kind of like that old Star Trek television show, since there was a platform and six big glass tubes mounted like pillars between the floor and ceiling. They were empty, however, and they actually looked kind of dark, but the word transport was in my head and aliens and so…Star Trek, why not?

"What is this?" I asked, staring at the man now, demanding a real answer and he nodded.

"It's a transport system between Earth and the command ship in orbit," he told me. "The aliens want to meet you."

"No…No way." I shook my head and took a step back. "This is crazy."

"It's perfectly safe," the man said and I became aware of other men moving behind machines and computer consoles. They wore white coveralls and looked like doctors or scientists, but not aliens.

"What did I do?" I asked him. "Why me?"

"I don't know," he said. "But they asked for you."

"I don't want to go!" I felt my eyes welling up with tears. "I want to go home! I want my husband! I want my mom and dad!"

I started crying then, ready to fall because I missed my parents so badly just then, even more than I missed Christian. I wanted to wake up in my bed and this same wave of depression had engulfed me countless times. Now I had a good reason for it. I wasn't going to fight; I didn't have that kind of strength. I just wanted to go home.

"Let's get her in the tube," someone said and it felt like a dream after that.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Drink this, it'll make you feel better," a voice said and my head hurt, my eyes didn't want to open. "Transport can be disorienting the first time."

Someone cupped the back of my head, lifting me off a pillow it seemed, or a cushion, and I felt something cool and wet on my lips. It tasted sweet, but not overpowering and without much else for flavor. Sugarwater, I thought, but it went down easy and it did make me feel better.

"Can you open your eyes?" the voice asked and it sounded old maybe, but male or female I couldn't tell.

I opened my eyes slowly, ready to close them again if I had to, but wherever they'd brought me, the place was softly lit. Not dim, but glowing with a yellowish light that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere all at once. It seemed kinda nice actually and almost soothing in a way.

"Good," she said, or I think it was a she.

The person speaking looked something like a cave woman, and not Raquel Welch in that old movie, but like one of those reconstructed prehistoric ancestors you see in museums. She had sunken eyes and a big bony brow, you know? A crooked nose and thick lips. If I'd had to make guesses about what the aliens looked like, this wouldn't have made the list. Not in a million years.

"Not what you expected?" She smiled, sorta, except it looked scary. "We're Talis."

"Alice?" I blinked at her, shrinking back slightly as I noticed her big hairy hands and swollen knuckles. She held the crystal glass I'd been drinking from.

"Talis," she repeated patiently. "But Alice is nice too."

"What do you want?" I asked softly, glancing around the room, but the glow just seemed to fade into black. I couldn't see any doors or windows, or even any other furniture but the recliner sort of thing I was laying on. Talis sat at the foot of it, leaning over me.

"I want to be your friend, Kelly," Talis said. "I want to know you better and help you understand what's happening."

"What? Like, uh…you wanted a pet human and you picked me?" I pulled myself up slowly, sitting erect and bringing my knees to my chest.

"No, not like that," she said. "It's an interesting idea though."

"Glad you think so," I said, hugging myself. "When can I go home?"

"I'm not sure," Talis said. "Once I've decided, then we'll know."

"Decided what?" I asked.

"Now that's a very large subject and I think you should rest first," she said and her voice, her words were gentle, but that face…

"No, I'm not tired. I'm just…" I sighed. "I'm tired of not knowing, that's all. Can't you just tell me?"

Talis seemed to consider that for a moment, looking at me in the face and I noticed her eyes were blue, which seemed totally out of place. They were intelligent too, I realized, as if I couldn't already figure out that she wasn't a Neanderthal beating rocks together in a cave. I mean, she looked like she knew everything, or wanted to anyway. Curious, intelligent blue eyes, that's what she had, and I found them somehow reassuring.

"My species doesn't live the way you do," she said slowly. "We're more like a virus, you might say."

"What?"

"We require a host organism to support us, like this one." She touched her fingers to her chest. "Talis comes from another planet, a very distant planet, and we've been together for a very long time."

"You mean…" I struggled to catch up with her words, "…you're inside her?"

"Exactly. I reside in her DNA for all practical purposes," Talis agreed. "She's my host and together we live."

"But…" I swallowed hard. "What happened to her?"

"She's here. We're both here, speaking to you now," she said with a smile. "She didn't die. She didn't cease to be herself, Talis…Evolved."

"You can't be two people," I said. "That's impossible. It doesn't make sense."

"We're more than two," Talis told me. "Every host survives through me."

"I don't understand at all." I frowned.

"A body doesn't last forever, Kelly," she said. "But memories do. A person's hopes and dreams, their triumphs and tragedies, all the things that make a person who they are can survive through me."

"You're saying that Talis is…What? Just your newest body? That you did this before?"

"Many, many times." She nodded. "Soon I'll have to move into a new host, someone young and strong."

"What?" I shrank back from her even further.

"This body is dying," she said. "Talis is well over a hundred years old by your calendar. Our body is tired and needs to sleep."

"No," I said.

"We'll talk more about this after you've rested."

"You can't have my body." I swallowed hard. "I'm using it. It's mine!"

"It will always be yours, Kelly." Talis stood slowly. "Nobody can take it from you, not even me."

"Good." I nodded, looking around wide-eyed and wanting to run. "So, just send me back home, okay? Find somebody else and…"

"We'll see," she said with that gentle voice I suddenly hated. "We have time to discuss it first. This isn't a small decision for either of us."

"There's nothing to discuss," I told her. "You killed my family. I hate you!"

"I understand," she said, perhaps sadly, I couldn't tell and it didn't matter anyway. "Rest now."

She left quickly, stepping out of the light and disappearing. It was a neat trick, but I'd seen better ones. I got off the recliner and walked around slowly, checking the place out. If I went too far, out of the light, more lights would turn on for me and the ones behind me go out. I found a bathroom that way, a pretty typical one too, except there wasn't any toilet paper, just a spray nozzle kind of thing and a bar of soap.

"Stupid aliens." I shook my head, wondering how anyone who didn't even have toilet paper could conquer the earth.

I found a table as well, kind of sitting in the middle of the room as it turned out. There were fruits in a bowel, some kind of bread, I guessed, except it was crunchy like a big cracker. A pitcher with that sweet water in it too and I drank some of that, but I wasn't especially hungry. I didn't find any doors though, no exits, so it looked like I'd been taken prisoner, which makes sense. They wouldn't want some earthling running around on their spaceship pushing buttons or whatever. If I could have, I'd have pushed every button I found until something blew up.

I could save the earth, I thought. Avenge all those people the aliens had killed. My mom and dad and even Christian's wife, his ex-wife, I corrected myself. I was his wife now and I almost felt bad about some of the stuff I'd said about her before, when she'd been alive. I'd only hated her cause she'd married the man I loved, but I didn't even know her. I hated thinking about stuff like that, especially when I fell asleep; it always gave me bad dreams.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-==-=-=-=

When I woke up the room was dark, but someone somewhere must have been watching me because the lights came on right away. That made me kind of nervous because I wanted to use the bathroom. I wanted a shower too. I wanted to change clothes and eat pancakes. I wanted to have coffee with Christian and listen to him complain about missing his car. I wanted to go home.

At least I got to pee and take a shower and if any aliens were watching me, well, I hoped they got a good thrill out of it.

"Stupid aliens," I said, putting on my panties, which were stained with cum from stupid Matt making me cheat on Christian.

So then I had to spend ten minutes worrying about that, because today was a new day and now I had even more guilt to live with. God! I'm away from my husband for a couple hours and I let the first guy who comes along fuck me? Matt wasn't that cute! How would I ever explain that? It wasn't like I could lie to him; Christian always knew when I felt bad about something. I hated myself for ten whole minutes, like it was a luxury or something, and then I had to set my self-pity aside because Talis came back.

"Can I go home now?" I asked, knowing the answer to that dumb question.

"No," she said. "Eat first, and then I'll show you the ship. Would you like that?"

"Can I push buttons?" I asked.

The alien cave woman let that question go, but she seemed pretty determined that I eat something. I had half a mind to go on a hunger strike, but it wasn't like I didn't have enough problems already. My real hope was that we could have our little discussion, come to an agreement that my body belonged to me, and go our separate ways. Talis could go to hell and I'd go home, that seemed fair to me.

"Do you have coffee? Or hot cocoa or anything?" I asked her seriously.

"No, I'm sorry," she said. "I know this isn't what you're used to."

"You can say that again." I frowned, picking up an orange from the bowl and peeling it slowly. At least they'd gotten some real fruit.

"Once we're joined…If we're joined," she smiled at me, "you'll be much more comfortable. I'm still learning about you and your people."

"You speak English pretty good," I said. "Where'd you learn that?"

"Certain quantitative data can be implanted into the brain through biochemical processes. Languages, for example."

"Sure." I nodded, having zero idea what she was talking about.

"It's very much like having memorized the information and through subjective use, learning how to apply it," she explained. "Unfortunately, like all short-term memories, the data deteriorates over time."

"Of course." I rolled my eyes. "So you're saying you're gonna forget how to speak English pretty soon?"

"Eventually, although application of the data slows the deterioration process significantly," Talis said. "By then I will have found a human host, however, and I'll no longer require the implant."

"Hmmm…" I chewed my orange slowly. "Just make sure you don't get someone who speaks something stupid, like Japanese or something. Nobody understands what those guys are saying."

"No, we've decided English will be our primary language," Talis said. "Largely for technical reasons, but there are certain political considerations as well."

"Are there a lot of you guys?" I wondered. "Or did you just come by yourself, or what?"

"There are many of us," Talis agreed. "Our empire is not one of conquest, but rather assimilation."

"You have an empire?" I blinked at that, but I guess it made sense. "What does assimilation mean? You conquered Earth, right?"

"Earth is now part of the Empire, its resources will added to the whole and likewise it will share in the Empire's wealth," Talis said. "Your people will benefit, believe me, your planet will prosper as it has never done in the past."

"And that's why you blew up Los Angeles?" I asked her. "Cause you're so darn friendly?"

"There are certain necessities…"

"You killed my parents! Do you have any idea what that feels like?" I stared at her and the alien didn't look away from me. "What would you do if someone did that to you? Huh?"

She didn't say anything and I blinked back tears, ready to lose it again. Here was the person, the creature, who had blown up not just LA, but so many other cities as well. Without warning, without reason, she just came along and did it. I wished right then I was someone bigger and stronger, someone who could grab her by the throat and squeeze. But all I could do was cry.

"Answer me!"

"My requirements for a host do not change," Talis said and I started to interrupt her, but she held up a hand. "From planet to planet, over many long millennium, they have always remained constant. Aside from a specific DNA structure, certain factors regarding age and health and social background, I require someone who has suffered loss."

"Loss?"

"I ordered the destruction of your cities, it's true, and that necessity did not please me. By joining with you, I will feel your loss, Kelly. I'll share your grief and yes, I'll share your anger as well."

"I don't believe you," I said.

"Every host I have joined with has lost loved ones by my command." Talis watched my eyes with hers and I knew she told me the truth. "I don't apologize for it, but nor do I revel in the death of so many innocents."

"Then why do it?" I asked, my tears seeming to explode from my eyes. "Why?"

"We've tried other methods," she said. "Less drastic measures in the past, on planets like yours. The result, invariably, has been far worse than what happened to Earth."

"What could be worse than what you did?"

"Watching your people tear themselves apart," Talis sighed. "The planet doesn't unite under a common flag, a central government, and join the empire. Nations look for advantage; they bargain for technology and conspire for information, which they use to assure their prominence. Other nations resist this. Wars are fought, world wars with weapons of mass destruction. The empire gains nothing from this and your world is reduced to ash."

"We wouldn't do that," I said, wiping at my eyes.

"You've killed yourselves over much less than what we offer, Kelly," Talis told me sadly. "Therefore, we come to your fractured planet, eliminate your ability to wage war, and rebuild it in a manner of our choosing."

Talis left me to think about that and I doubted there was a person anywhere less qualified to judge her words. I was sixteen and alone and I knew nothing of politics or people. I wanted to believe she had to be wrong, that she'd lied to me, but I couldn't find a good reason. She could have told me so many other lies, but she hadn't. Talis had looked me in the eyes and admitted to what she'd done.

Did she regret it? I thought so, but it didn't bring my parents back to me. How many of those people now dead would have given up their lives willingly if it meant saving the planet as a whole? If it meant saving the human race? Would my mom and dad have done it to save me? That's what Talis seemed to be saying, if I understood her correctly. I just didn't know and it hurt to look for answers.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"I'm frightened," I said.

"I understand." Talis nodded and we were in one of the ship's medical bays, lying side by side on examination tables of some sort.

"We're ready, Duchess," a technician's disembodied voice floated out of the darkness above us. "Program initiated. Standby."

"You never did explain the politics," I sighed. "You said you would."

"An hour from now and you'll know as much as I do about it." Talis actually laughed, a rare sound and not altogether pleasant.

"Did you like being Talis?" I asked a minute later, because we were still waiting and I felt nervous.

"I will always be Talis," she answered patiently and I still had difficulty understanding that.

"And after today you'll always be me, right?" I closed my eyes and drew a deep breath. "Will I still be me?"

"Of course you will, Kelly," Talis promised. "You'll see."

 

Chapter 3