FTL-13...Faster Than Life.

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FTL…13 Faster Than Life.

Chapter 13

There was part of me that wanted to stay in bed.
Maybe, just maybe get as far as the chaise out there on the sand.

But Patrick had started to massage me with coconut oil all over and was straddling me giving me this wonderful massage and it had gotten better…

Very surprising but better when he slipped back and he sank into me from behind and dammit he made love and he kept massaging me.

Worse yet?

“Erin, how many times have you told me that said that one of the things that you hated about your old life was the fact you sat around and hadn’t actually tried to live life?”

Don’t you hate men when they actually get all logical and use that against you…Patrick’s far more insidious than that because it’s really unfair him asking me stuff like that when I’m bubbling inside right on the edge of orgasm.

That man…that man was using feminine wiles against me in a male way and it was working.

“Fine…unnghn….”

It was regular fine not girl fine.

Girl “Fine.” As you know is never fine.

This was just that I was okay with it now…I was okay with a lot of things once I was all relaxed and shimmering with afterglow.

The big thing? Puns not included?

Patrick wants to take me reef diving and to some of the places he’s been checking out here. He wants to take me underwater into his world. He’s a Triton that’s marine Special Forces but also he’s a Deltan a bio-gene-modified human species that was meant for aquatic life. He grew up most of his life like that as much in the water as out of it.

Me I want to build on those memories like I said.

I’m so glad that I went with him.

I’ve got a gill breather for my mouth and fin gloves and fin socks on and a bathing suit and I’m swimming and I’m following Patrick who for him is swimming sedately but never in all the wildest sims have I ever seen anything like this.

Once we got under the water we swam descending into the warm waters into another world. I mean everyone’s pretty much seen diving vids of some kind but the reefs here are huge and they’re only covered by some pretty shallow seas and with the light and the food here being just ideal they just are like nothing my mind was ready for.

There’s been people here for hundreds of years some the reefs had been carved and shaped and tended to be a massive undersea colonial park. Some parts you can swim through like caves or buildings some are like archways and pillars and there’s so many colors and fish that slip through the water in schools of multicoloured bright and sponges that are like these whole alien sort of fields.

Some times we’ll stop and have a break…he’ll feed me something still sort of living and use his knife to fillet or open it. I’m past the squeamishness and way too into the adventure and romance of it to be bothered by the freshness.

Sometimes we’ll kiss…he can breathe for me…and there was this one spot that had these cross currents hitting the coral walls and it would spin you around as long as you let it and he led me there and he held me as the water slow danced us in circles and we kissed.

I had to take surfacing breaks and recover from being so water logged and wrinkled so we’d stop at these cabana boats and have a few drinks and hang out and tan.

We spent the whole day doing all of that and I was tired when we got home to out bungalow but pleasantly surprised when I had found out that we had swam close to forty kilometres during the span of the day. Okay we had been gone for close to twelve hours but still. Considering the lack of shape that I had been in when I enlisted.

I’m pretty damned proud of myself and enough when my OBC flashes me an invite to a party I accept.

It’s a military party and casual off duty clothes and it’s being held by Companion services for the assembled fleet and Patrick and I go. I’m wearing my hair loose for a change and a tropical red print with yellow and white and pink flowers on it one shoulder halter top and a matching long skirt. I like it it’s local sort of a sari of sorts and we arrive and there’s a huge party going on with a massive buffet and native colonists pulling whole roasted pigs from the ground or spits and huge grills with shellfish, fish, birds all cooked in everyway that you could think of.

I’m starved from the swimming and make for the buffets first and I’m looking things over when I see her. The young alien staffer. She’s not in uniform but in this lycra like bathing suit that looks like shiny green kissed with a golden sheen fish skin…it’s amazing and it really sets off the pale, pale blue skin and the green hair. She’s actually braver hair wise than I am with her hair done in corn rolls beaded at the ends with beads made of compressed abalone shell.

She smiles as she see’s me. We both look around and move close together while perusing the tables. “Hello…”

“Hi, I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

“Yes, I have heard this a lot from those in the knowings. I am to be saying I’m a gene-mod human.”

“Are you gene-moded though? To look more like us?”

“No. But we have been asking why it is that you look so much like us as well.”

“So this is what you were born like?”

“No, this is what I look like now. I am in my second cycle.”

“Second cycle?”

“Yes, we’re born without gender. For the first part of our lives we just live and learn and become who we are on the inside…develop our sense of self. Then we enter our second cycle where we choose our gender until we are ready to return to our first cycle and have the chance to choose again.”

“You switch genders?”

“Yes…is this a bad thing?”

“No just…very different to us. How can you know what gender you want to be?”

“We live, we watch those already in cycles before us are our peers and birthers it’s all who we identify with really.”

“Can I ask why did you choose female?”

“Oh why did you?”

“It’s who I am?”

She looks at me and she smiles. I smile back I hold my hands up. “Okay, okay fair enough. So you decided on what to try?”

“There is so much here that I have never seen before. We do not have so much of these things here.”

“So food is like where you’re from?”

“Ah…different, most of our water is under the surface and the rest is dense jungles and mountains. We have some herder food but we live mostly on farmed goods like….nuts…fruits… (She points at rice.) that and insects.”

“Bugs?”

“Yes…”

She points at a shrimp. “We have something like that but they fly with four wings and they have a long front tube that they use to suck nectar and even tiny insects.”

“It sounds interesting. I’m not used to all of this either where I come from food’s not like this. It’s very beef heavy, grains and that’s if you are wealthy most people live from packaged and processed foods.”

She nods. “That is most common in our cities. It’s fast and convenient and tastes like repurposed and reflavored excrement.”

She blushes. “Sorry I am not a fan of canned foodstuffs.”

“That’s okay, I’m Erin.”

“I am Elleryrion.”

“Oh…” I’m trying to wrap my head around that one.

“I was told to shorten it even for the mission…I am Elle.”

“Elle…I like that.”

“Yes, as do I we may adopt the use of shortened names after this.”

“Well Elle-lair-yin? (I was sounding it out.) I like that too.”

“Thank you but it’s Elle-lair-ree-in.” she sounds it out for me.

“Thanks I want to get things right with you know. How about we both get things we’ve never tried and then we cane both look like spazzes together.”

“Spazzes? What is spazzes?”

“Goofy?” she give me the blank stare.

“Uhm, foolish but in a friendly way…”

“Ah…I think I understand.”

We get a whole bunch of things to try on these big eating boards and sit and have a drink of some kind of fruit punch and we both try the small octopus that was grilled in some sauce.

“Really…”

“Chewy…she says her mouth going and cheeks bulging I took a bite out of mine but she ate the whole thing. But it was just funny that we were sort of thinking the same thing and we giggle over it. My bites and her whole thing really did amount to use finishing it at the same time and she takes a drink then says… “Oh…excellent.”

I look at mine, it was okay. “It’s not bad but excellent?”

“No…look…”

I grin.

Patrick’s headed our way full tray of food with him.

“He’s my S.O.”

“You’re…I am sorry that acronym was not in the military speech pattern data base.”

“Oh he’s my significant other.”

Elle looks like she’s thinking, sounding out the term in her head. I’ve never really known someone that English is her second language before. “Oh…what you’d say is boyfriend?”

“Yes, yes he is.”

“Erin?”

“Yes Elle.”

“Does he have an attractive friend?”

I cough on my drink. I wasn’t expecting that one.

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Comments

"Erin?"

I have to get my mind out of the gutter! LOL I swear I thought she was going to ask Erin if she shared. :) Well, he is a looker! Nice stuff!
hugs
Grover

Lol, you weren't the only

Lol, you weren't the only one.

So those aliens aren't as alien as we first thought. Apparently they're human aliens or space elves. I wonder about the gender bender part. Is that natural, or a descicion their society made. I wonder if they're immortal. Ellen's comment pretty much indicated something like that with her two repeating life cycles - if they don't like their current life anymore they restart in cycle one?

Thank you for writing this captivating story,
*hugs*
Beyogi

Grins, you too huh.

No they're not as Alien as alien can be but humanoid doesn't mean human and elves? There wasn't really anything to suggest that was there? Not even pointed ears. As for the other stuff we might get it revealed by Elle.
But Erin is really wondering the same thing too.
*Big Hugs*
Bailey.

Bailey Summers

But she's totally got an

But she's totally got an elvish name. So she's a space elf. Um I thought space elf was a term for a more or less human looking alien that isn't human, lives longer as a human and has a different not too war like culture. (and maybe has pointed ears)
I'm glad Erin is wondering too, so she's obviously smart ^^
*lol*
*hugs*
Beyogi

Lol! Okay then maybe she is:)

But she still doesn't have pointed ears. In fact I might steal that term as what the humans might start calling them.
*More Hugs*
Bailey.

Bailey Summers

Grover! Yay for you going there;)

It was sort of heading that way though if you look at it that way.
*Big Hugs*
Bailey.

Bailey Summers

sparks

with the sparks, that may yet happen. her description of packaged food reminds me of k-rats and mre's.
sounds like their at a super luau.
good chapter, thanks

Luau...I couldn't remember the word for it. Thanks!

There's going to be sparks coming along. But you're right the Makere's version of canned goods is more like the MRE's and K-rats and not our metal and glass containers.
*Hugs and Howls.*
Bailey.

Bailey Summers

Some things may just be universal.

"Does he have an attractive friend.?" Good line I love it. In one of the many Sci-FY anthologies I have read, there was a story about a first contact situation where as the higher ups were discussing the Big picture, the attending crew members swapped dirty jokes out side of the meeting room.
Giggles
Michele

With those with open eyes the world reads like a book

celtgirl_0.gif

You're right Misha, some stuff is universal.

I can see some of the Makere doing that. They're different but not that different that they wouldn't joke around.
*Huggles*
Bailey.

Bailey Summers

:)

Extravagance's picture

It works for me too!

Catfolk Pride.PNG

Imaginings finished.

Extravagance's picture

Part sexy human, part sea creature...

If I were a character in this universe, I'd sleep with him. =) As soon as I had conceived, I'd rip his head off (praying mantis style), and then de-bone and fillet him and chop him up into tiny pieces with a selection of different shaped swords.
Yummy seafood for baby and me for many months! ^_^

Catfolk Pride.PNG

Cool

I wonder how for second contact the staffer got to go on planet. Doesn't she have to go through 'command' for such a thing or was this prearranged part of learning about each other.

Erin is one of the few 'in the know' and I do not believe Patrick has need-to-know so Erin needs to be a bit more circumspect with the staffer.

I like the interaction between Erin and the staffer so far.

Kim

Cornfused

Jamie Lee's picture

Erin really looks like she gets the point of shore leave. She's been having a real good time, along with Patrick.

They are now at a party thrown by the companions, and the mysterious beings are there too. But that brings up a question.

Once the shuttle returned to the ship, the crew was told that mums was the word. Talk to no one below command. But here they are at the party, with all on shore leave who came. Weren't these folks supposed to be kept under wraps? But Erin and Elle are having a good old fashion conversation, which sort of violates the orders the crew was given. Does Patrick know about them? If not, he's about to find out.

How will Erin fare when she and Patrick have to go their separate ways? Knowing their time together is temporary is one thing. When the split occurs is another thing.

Others have feelings too.