War Games (Alien Instincts) (2 page)

Now that she was standing toe to toe with him, she wasn’t quite as intimidating as Rae would have liked. The top of her head only barely made it to the alien’s chest, and she had to crane her head back to yell at him. Rae knew yelling at an unknown entity was not the best idea she had ever had, but she was used to using sheer passion to intimidate her peers in the army, most of whom were men much larger than her. They weren’t usually as distractingly attractive as the being in front of her, however.

“And if you think for one minute that taking me away from everything I know is going to gain you some sort of advantage over me, you got another thing coming.” Rae punctuated this point by poking him in the chest, which she realized was an awfully nice chest, just to make sure he got the idea. “I’ve dealt with men your size before, and believe me when I say if you think you are getting in my pants, I’ll show you the shitty side of Hell!”

“What’s in your pants?” Markar asked curiously, his head tilting to the side in confusion.

Rae’s face reddened as she blurted “Nothing you need to know about!” a little too fast. Markar didn’t respond to that outburst, but Rae had a feeling he had already gotten a little too much information out of her. Once her rage had cooled a little, Rae realized the ridiculousness of the whole conversation.

Markar frowned down at the short human with the disproportionately large temper. He didn’t know quiet what he expected, but this confrontation was not it. Logically, he would have thought a smaller human to be less aggressive, but that did not seem to be the case. In fact, it seemed to be almost the opposite! Markar took a moment to analyze his own reaction to the creature’s behavior, to realize he was acting just as odd. Instead of the instinctual drive he usually felt to battle for dominance with someone challenging him, Markar did not feel threatened, in that way, at all.

It could have been the human’s size, but the creature was as many times as vicious to make up for it. He felt supremely unsettled at that thought, wondering if he was unconsciously bowing down to a superior. Markar decided to avoid more conflict and deal with the situation calmly. “I apologize for the inconvenience, but I would really like to continue the interview at this time.”

Rae looked at the alien in front of her suspiciously. “Why couldn’t we just do the interview on Earth, as planned?” She would think she was going crazy, but Rae swore she saw her own confusion mirrored in the odd being’s eyes. Rae had fine-tuned her ability to pick up on other’s emotions and body language, trying to get any advantage in her profession.

“Well,” he paused, thinking over his answer. “They appeared as if they would take you away.”

The whole experience had seemed odd at the time to Rae. Obviously her superiors had something planned other than a straight interview, and this alien being was able to detect that as well. It seemed they had both been misled. It had been Rae’s mission to interview this creature and assess the situation, and what better way to do that than interview the alien in his own habitat? Rae believed in honor, and felt it was her duty to her fellow citizens to accomplish her intel-gathering mission. What other motives the government had to set up this situation would have to wait.

Rae nodded. “Yes, I believe we should follow through with our interview.” Sticking out her hand, she said “It’s Rae. Rae Montgomery.” The alien stared blankly at her hand for a while before Rae drew it back self-consciously. His eyes followed her movement. “Well… how would you like to get this started? I’m afraid my notes seem to be back on Earth.”

Intercourse

Rae followed Markar to a small room with what appeared to be couches set up. Sitting across from him, she wished terribly she had some sort of note pad to record her findings in. Unfortunately, it seemed she would have to rely on her own memory.

Markar was staring unblinkingly at her again. He seemed to be watching every slight movement she made. Rae realized he was an alien being and that accounted for some of his strangeness, but she was still unnerved to find out that one of the reasons Markar’s stare was so unsettling was because it reminded her of a predator. Of course, it could have something to do with his strange eye color as well. The golden glow that they produced made him seem like a wolf.

It made her feel ridiculously self-conscious to have so much attention directed towards her, even though Rae supposed she should have expected it. But she knew she wasn’t the first human Markar had met, not by a long shot if the reports she had read had indicated anything. The only reason she had been allowed to do the interview in the first place was because Markar was supposed to be, if not exactly a docile creature, surely a civilized one.

In all of the other accounts there had been no problems. He had been cooperative, polite, and helpful. But that was all on the surface. Her reports speculated that he was not being entirely open with them, and he wasn’t to be completely trusted yet. Well, one way or another, Rae would find out if she could trust him, because for now, she had to.

Bracing herself, Rae began. “How would you like to start this? It’s Markar, right?”

Markar felt an odd sort of pleasure hearing Rae pronounce his name. Surprised by that, he delved deeper into the feeling and came to the conclusion that he was feeling strangely possessive of the human. He had never felt possessive of another creature before and didn’t know why he should start now. “Yes. I would like to ask you some questions first if you don’t mind.” he responded.

Rae nodded. “Go right ahead.”

“You are much smaller than the other humans I have seen, why is that?”

Rae bristled at the questions, becoming offended at first. She was not that short! “I’m actually of average height.” She responded coolly.

Markar stared at Rae suspiciously. Every single other human he had seen had been significantly larger than Rae. “Are many humans your size then?”

“A lot are much shorter than me.” Rae said, frowning. Why was he so focused on her height?

Markar looked the human across from him up and down. “I don’t just mean height, but overall your body is proportionately smaller than any other human I have seen. Does it have to do with how little testosterone your body produces?” He cocked his head at that, patiently waiting for her answer.

Rae frowned again at his line of questioning. “I’m a woman. I’m not supposed to have as much testosterone as a man.” she finally responded.

“Is that another species of human?” Markar asked. Rae lifted one eyebrow at that. “No. I’m female. Still human. I guess you’ve seen mostly the males of our species. Well, I’m of the female gender. We are usually smaller, produce more estrogen than testosterone, and are able to bear young.”

At that last statement, Markar seemed to be put in a state of frozen animation. Rae stared at him, waiting for some response, and began to feel uneasy as the seconds ticked by and it looked as if he had died sitting up. “Um… well… yes. The female species of most animals on earth usually bear the young. Humans are no exception.”

Markar’s face paled as he transitioned out of his state of suspended animation. “Are you carrying young right now?” he blurted.

“No!” Rae said in instant denial. “I don’t seem to have any young on me at the moment.” she added sarcastically. Her tone seemed to go over his head.

“Human females can create clones inside of themselves?” Markar looked off into the distance. He seemed to be handling this news rather
not
well.

“Something like that.” Rae muttered. She watched as Markar tried to fit this information into his own mind, and could tell he was having a hard time of it. Rae waited patiently for his mind to process. Apparently, out of all the interviews before hers, human reproduction was a topic they had skipped over. Rae’s ire rose as she began to see a pattern. There was a reason her superiors sent in a lone woman: to gauge Markar’s reaction. Rae imagined all parties involved got a little more than they bargained for.

Markar finally looked back towards her. “How can your tiny body possibly produce clones?”

Rae rolled her eyes. She could always stand to lose a few pounds, but found it hard to do if she wanted to keep up her strength training. She had long ago decided to stop worrying about fat, and focus on muscle for her career. “First of all, it is not that tiny, second, it is a long complicated process that takes roughly nine months and about as long to explain it.” Rae really didn’t want to get into this with an alien. She was not qualified for this.

The look Markar gave her proved her attempt at being evasive did not work. “We have time.” he said coldly. It was the first hint of a threat she had gotten from him, and it made Rae uneasy.

“Look, to be honest I’ve never had a child, and really, I don’t know much about the whole process, either! You should probably talk to someone else about this.” Rae was not lying. She had never even had a long-term relationship where she would have thought children were a possibility. She hadn’t ever spent more than five minutes with a kid in her whole life. Rae fidgeted. If there was only one conversation with an alien that she was not prepared for, this was it. Damn her luck!

“Why don’t you start from the beginning.” Markar offered. “You may take your time.”

How generous of him! “Well, when a man and a woman love each other… I’m hungry.” Rae blurted. Markar frowned at her before he got up and stomped angrily to another room in the large spacecraft. Rae was left alone to wonder how the hell she was going to explain the intricacies of human intercourse.

When Markar returned a while later, he slammed a plate of food onto the small table in front of Rae. She looked at it suspiciously. “What is that?”

Markar leaned down to get in Rae’s face. “Look,
woman
, I will get all the information I want out of you, even if I have to keep you with me for the rest of your days. So evade the questions for as long as you like, but the longer you take, the further from your planet we travel.” Even as he spoke the words, Markar wished he could take them back. In the first place, he did hope that she would take her entire life to explain, so that he would have no reason to ever let her go. Secondly, he did not like fostering fear and distrust in her. Moving away from her, he resumed his seat.

“Jeez! All I wanted to know was what the hell this green shit is.” Rae poked the food in question.

“It is good. You will like it. Now eat.” Markar was starting to get bossy. Rae was sure she didn’t like that. Angrily scooping some of the food, she shoved it into her mouth. Finding that she did in fact like the green shit, and it only served to make her angrier.

Dreading the conversation ahead, she ate slowly while she thought of how the hell she was going to explain human mating practices. She finally decided there was no tactful way she could explain it. Slowly putting her eating utensil down, she looked up at Markar to see that he was still watching her. “I’m going to need to draw some diagrams.”

Markar scowled at her, but he eventually did get up and grab a large marker. Placing it down on the table, he grabbed her dishes and left her alone again. Returning to his chair a while later he explained that the table itself could be written on. Rae sighed. Time to just jump into it.

“Ok. So like I was saying. When a woman and man fall in love, they get these feelings for one another and they get urges to have sex.” Rae paused to frown at Markar, the man making her give him the birds-and-the-bees story. “When they decide to finally seal the deal, so to speak, if their attraction is strong enough, the man’s… uh… penis becomes hard, because it’s erectile tissue, and he inserts it into the woman’s vagina, assuming she is well lubricated.” At that she uncapped the large marker and began to draw something, anything, to get Markar’s attention off of her. “After some sporadic pumping, the man ejaculates sperm into the female’s vagina,”

“STOP!”

Rae looked up at the outburst. Markar was gripping the edge of his seat. His knuckles were white, but the rest of him was all flushed. He was shaking- his whole body was shaking. Looking wildly around like a scared rabbit, he suddenly got up and left the room. Rae was left, holding the still unused marker in her hand.

“He must have a headache.” she murmured sarcastically.

-

Markar retreated to his own bedroom. He was still breathing heavily and he felt as if something was wrong with him. What Rae had said kept playing over and over in his mind:
When a woman and man fall in love.
Panicking, he sat down on his bed and tried to slow his heart rate. What had him absolutely terrified was that her words seemed to have cursed him as she spoke them. But yet again, maybe he was cursed the first time he saw her. Looking down at himself, he saw that his dick was in fact hard, as Rae had explained it would be.

His people had no females. They reproduced using technology- cloning themselves. He had never felt sexual attraction for another being before, and the effects were driving him crazy. Markar ran his hands through his hair as he hung his head in confusion. Some of his people felt attraction for one another, and formed close bonds, but that had never appealed to Markar. But the thought of forming that kind of a bond with Rae practically made him drool.

He was right to cease the diplomatic mission and take Rae in to investigate. If many of his people, the Morian race, were like him, the effects of the human female population would be profound. Markar had thought the humans had no threat to offer them. From just the way he was reacting, he had a feeling that females would be the biggest threat to the Morian society they had ever seen.

A Dangerous Mission

Markar didn’t return. It had been hours since Rae was abducted from Earth, and the exhaustion from her ordeal was starting to catch up to her. Having no idea where else to go, she curled up on a couch in the room she was in and tried to get some sleep. But her army training was against her, and she found it hard to relax in “enemy” territory- or, at least, the territory of the alien that had kidnapped and held her hostage for information. Instead, she catalogued everything in the room, taking careful inventory of her surroundings.