Aliena (4 page)

“Tickle me.”

“Okay. Stand before me.”

She did. He reached out and touched her ribs on either side, stroking to evoke ticklishness. She suddenly stepped forward and kissed him. Surprised, he put his arms around her, savoring it.

“Is that normal?” she asked after a moment.

“No. That was your reaction to being tickled?”

“Yes. I had an urge to kiss.”

“You said your connections are imperfect. That must be an example. Unless the clothing somehow changed it.”

Aliena pulled off her heavy shirt and stood in her bra. “Do it again.”

He tickled her bare ribs. She virtually leaped into him with another kiss.

“I love this,” he said. “But it’s definitely a misconnection. Tickling make you amorous. I wonder.”

“Wonder?”

“How you would react to a love stroke.”

“Do that.”

“It was just a passing notion. I don’t think that would be proper to actually do.”

“Please. I want to know.”

“Well, I could kiss your bare breasts. But this is something that should not--”

He broke off, because she was unsnapping her bra, exposing her beautiful breasts.

“All right, Aliena. But tell me to stop the moment you feel at all uncomfortable. Sit on the couch.”

She sat, and he kneeled before her. He kissed the evocative fullness of her left breast. His passion soared, but he battened it down. This was science, not sex.

“Oh!” she cried, flinching away.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to--”

“I was surprised, not pained. Do it again.”

“You’re sure?”

“I felt something different. Odd. I want to define it. I will not retreat again.”

So he approached her and kissed her breast again. She remained still until he reached the nipple and licked it. Then she burst out laughing. She grabbed his head and mashed his face against the breast.

Then they both paused. “You laughed!” he said as she released his head.

“I laughed,” she agreed. “It was ticklish.”

“I think we have proved the case. Your tickle and love stroke reflexes are reversed.”

She nodded. “You would want to mate, and I would laugh.”

“That would be awkward, yes.” He stood.

She put her shirt back on. “I must change that.”

“You forgot your bra.”

“I did not forget. I want to try another time, soon, the tickle and the kiss, to get them straight. I think there was a little tickle in the tickle, and mating in the kiss. Not enough.”

“Aliena, it may not be safe to try it again. Your bare breasts are one hell of a turn on.”

“But your tickle turns
me
on. That is not safe either.”

Brom pondered it. Probably it would be better for her to react sexually only to sexual stimuli, not to others. She did need to zero in her reflexes, if she could. He should have the self control to help her without molesting her. “We can try it.”

“Thank you.”

He changed the subject. “Maybe we should shop for supplies. This seems to be a prolonged siege.”

“Shop?”

And she had never been shopping? “I’ll show you. We’ll take the car. There should be somewhere with its own power generator.”

Riding in a car was evidently another new experience for Aliena. Had they drugged her to bring her to the house? He preferred not to inquire. He instructed her about using the seat belt, and explained what he was doing as he put it in Drive and slowly pulled out onto the street.

They had to go some distance before he spied an active supermarket. He parked in the lot, and they walked to the store. It was quite busy; many other people, stranded without power, had the same idea.

Alien’s amazement was plain as they entered the store and walked along its aisles. At last that connection was correct. “I have not seen a place like this.”

“It’s a standard supermarket. Next time ask Martha to take you along when she shops for groceries.”

“I will do this.”

He bought bread, cheese, milk, and crackers: things that needed neither cooking nor refrigeration. He paid for them with cash. He saw Aliena looking, and knew there was more explaining to do, about the monetary system.

They returned to the car, and he put his bag in back.

“I can do this,” Aliena said.

“Do what?”

“Drive the car.”

He remembered when a quick study she had been on reading words. He made a spot and probably foolish decision. “Do it. But be very careful; a car is dangerous when mishandled.”

She got into the driver’s seat and buckled up. He gave her the key, and she used it correctly. “The car will go forward, but the way is not clear,” she said.

He explained how to get Reverse. She did it, and eased the car out of the parking slot. Then she put it in Drive and drove forward. Sure enough, she had gotten it just from observing him on the way here. She obeyed the lights and signs.

In due course they pulled up before his house and parked. She had performed perfectly.

“Aliena, I am amazed and gratified. Let me kiss you.”

She opened her shirt. “Kiss me here.”

He didn’t argue. He leaned across and down and kissed her breast.

Her quick intake of breath pushed the breast against his face. “Oh, it tickles! But not so much.”

He drew back. “Cover yourself so we can go to the house.”

She did, and they did. He set the staples on the table, ready for the next meal. “Tickle me,” she said, removing her shirt.

He tickled her ribs. She leaned toward him, but this time did not kiss him. She was slowly getting it right.

She fetched the novel. This time she read it to him, pausing only on words she had not encountered before, which he happily provided. Her learning ability was simply fantastic.

Then she paused. “Oh.”

“What’s the matter?”

“I feel wet.”

“Wet?”

She stood and drew down her skirt. “Here. Am I sick?”

There was blood on her panties. “No, Aliena,” he reassured her. “It is your period. Don’t you remember? It comes every month.”

“One month ago I was transplanted,” she said. “Three weeks ago I obtained awareness in the new body. They taught me to walk and eat and urina—to pee. One week ago they brought me to the house. Sometimes my head bleeds, from the healing incision, but not my body. This is new.”

“Aliena, a normal human woman has a period about every month. Her—her uterus bleeds, slowly. It lasts for several days and then passes. The body’s last period must have been while you were unconscious. There is nothing wrong with you.”

“But what should I do? This is staining my clothing, and it is uncomfortable.”

“Cramps, probably. They will pass.” He considered. “Lucy surely left sanitary equipment.” He went to her room and rummaged until he found a box of tampons. “Take off your pants, wash the area with the cloth, and put one of these in your vagina. That will soak up the blood. In a few hours you can change it.” Seeing her expression, he held up a hand in a stop signal. “No, I can’t do it for you. Martha could, but not me. There are instructions in the box. Read them. Follow them. You will be all right.”

She took the box and went to the bathroom. “And put on new panties!” he called after her.

Before long she returned, looking entirely normal. “I have done it. Thank you.”

“Oh, you are welcome, Aliena. You are learning what you need to. Maybe we should celebrate.”

“Celebrate?”

“Do something fun. Maybe drive somewhere interesting. Where would you like to go?”

She considered. “Do you have a sea?”

Surprised, he answered bluntly. “The nearest shore is about two hours’ drive away. We could go there. But swimming is not recommended for a woman during her period. Well, maybe it’s okay, I’m not really knowledgeable about such personal details, but--”

“You have a sea,” she said.

“Yes. When your period is finished, we can go there, if the power has not yet returned. We can swim. You do know how to swim?”

“No. Not in this host. But you will teach me.”

She loved the sea, but could not swim? “I will teach you,” he agreed.

She opened her shirt again. “Kiss me.”

He was becoming accustomed to her single-mindedness. He kissed her breast and licked the nipple. “Oh, I am starting to feel the mating urge,” she said.

“Then maybe we have done enough of this.”

“No. There is farther to go. But I am learning.”

“You are learning,” he agreed.

At night they slept together again, holding hands. Brom did not say so, but he knew that he was falling in love with this strange, smart woman. Who would surely leave him once her associates returned. He cursed his own folly, to no avail.

They continued their routine of running in the early morning, shopping and reading and talking in the day, and helping the neighbors, who seemed quite taken with Aliena. There was no power, no running water, no proper sewage, but it was actually a rather pleasant time. Because they liked each other’s company.

It seemed like only an instant before Aliena announced that she was free of the period and ready to see the sea. In the interim she had learned to use his credit card, and had bought several books to read. She had also finally zeroed in her tickle and love stroke reflexes. He had taught her about as much as he could; she was taking over her own training. She really didn’t need him any more. He braced himself yet again for her departure, once the power returned, and with it, her people, Martha and Sam. He was pretty sure they would not approve his association with Aliena. She was destined to be an important foreign envoy, not a common local girl.

“Tomorrow early we will drive there,” he agreed. “I’ll pack the swimsuits and towels.”

“We will go there,” she agreed raptly.

In the morning they drove through the still-dark suburbs, but the lighted area was closer than it had been, and Brom judged that power would be restored to his area by the end of the day. That meant, ironically, that his association with Aliena was probably about to end. He hated that, despite the advantage that the restoration of power would bring them all.

Aliena was resplendent in shorts and halter, in vibrant health. She had kept up her exercise routine, showing rare discipline, and it showed. He was getting physically fitter than he had been, too, because of running with her. His exercise had been intermittent; now it was regular.

“You asked once about mating in my kind,” she said as the wind from her open window tousled her hair. “I said it was different from yours. We do not use the looks and words and strokes. Instead we sing.”

“You sing,” he repeated.

“I understand enough of your way now so that I know I can do it. I have been learning love, and now I think I love you, and am ready. But there is one thing I need, for this: to sing.”

“You mean the way we sing ‘Aliena’?”

“Not exactly, but it will do. When we reach the sea, I will sing. If you want to mate with me, you can sing that.”

“Oh, Aliena, I admit it: I have fallen in love with you and I want to have sex with you. But is it right?”

“It is right when I want it, when I am ready, and now I am. I am ready to sing.”

She continued to surprise him. “Can you tell me more about this mating song?”

“It is like this.” Then she sang a single note, like a resonant bell. It stirred him powerfully. There was just something about it.

“And if I sing ‘Aliena,’ I can join you?”

“Oh, yes.” Then she paused, the way she sometimes did. “But when we return, and the power returns, and Martha and Sam return, and you learn the rest of me, it may be over. That will be my sorrow.”

“What is it about you that you fear will turn me off?”

“I may not tell you. But I can warn you again: I am not a pretty girl. That is just my host. I wish I could be, for you, but I can’t change what I am. I can only love you, today, and hope you will love me.”

Her original form might have been ugly. But her mind was marvelous. “I have difficulty imagining anything that would turn me off you. You’re not a murderer or a changed male?”

She laughed, as she could do now. “I am neither! I am an innocent female. A virgin.” She had picked up that term from their reading.

He did not press her further. Whatever it was, he would learn all too soon. Meanwhile, they had this time together, and he wanted to make the most of it.

They came to the sea. The shore was there, and the sandy beach, but no people; the cleanup following the storm must be keeping them busy. They had it to themselves, on a sunny warm day.

“Oh!” she cried as she saw the expanse of it. She scrambled out of her clothes as he parked the car, and ran toward the water.

“Aliena!” he called. “Your swim suit!” but she was beyond caring as she ran naked to the surf. “You don’t know how to swim yet!”

“I will learn!” she called back.

What could he do? He couldn’t let her go alone, lest she get in over her head, literally. He scrambled out of his own clothing and ran after her, naked. There was no one else to see.

She splashed into the water, then threw herself down in it. She lay in the shallows, facing the sky. “Mate me! Mate me!” she cried.

She was ready at last, and he was more than ready. It was time for love.

Then, as he approached, she sang. It was the single note, vibrating again like a bell, marvelously pure and resonant; it was hard to imagine that it issued from a human throat.

She had told him to sing if he wanted to mate. He took a deep breath and sang. “Ali ali ena! Ali ali ena! Ali ali ali ali ali ali ena!”

She followed with another note, sustained and pure and compelling. It reached inside him, stirring his gut with its remarkable urgency. It hauled him to her, lying as she was half masked by the waves, water washing past her provocative thighs and breasts, her dark wet hair spreading in the surf, the loveliest creature he could imagine.

Still she sang the note, and he sang too, having no choice. Overwhelmed by the passion of the moment he flung himself down on her, and in a moment he was clasping her, inside her, unable to kiss her because they were both still singing. And there in the shallow water, compelled by the song, they surged into a joint climax. It was the wildest, most intense fulfillment he had ever had.