Chapter 6 #3
You have to be chosen to be one of a pair who’ll reproduce.
Not everyone is offered the opportunity.
Rare for a protector to get the chance. Usually, only hunters reproduce.
If you are chosen, you must accept the role you’re given and who you must be with.
Once selected for breeding, both partners secrete chemicals of attraction that cause them to physically mate. The stronger one bears the offspring.
“That doesn’t sound very romantic.”
I don’t understand that word.
“It means to say and do things that make your partner feel special and loved.”
Such as?
“The words you use, the names you call them, nicknames, endearments, the gifts you give each other, the places you choose to go. It’s hard to explain. Do those who are allowed to mate ever get to choose who they want to be with?”
No.
“We choose. Sometimes we get it wrong.”
Harris.
“Yes. How long do you live?”
In Earth years—fifty. Then release.
“You have your life ended?” Kaden gulped.
Yes.
“Oh. Do you have males and females in your species? You said you were male, but…”
We are both male and female. Hermaphrodite. Now I’m not. I’m male. You prefer males. Now I’m like you.
Oh God. “Because of me?” He’d made him gay? Oh fuck.
Yes. I’m gay too.
Kaden almost said he was sorry but… It wasn’t his fault and why shouldn’t Joe be gay?
“The correct term is homosexual. There are lot of different sexual orientations and not everyone is supportive of anything other than a male-female pairing.”
Why not? Is it wrong? Not allowed?
“It’s not wrong, though there are people who think it is.
In some countries it’s against the law to be gay and people get beaten up, put in prison, even killed.
Sexual orientation isn’t a choice, it’s just the way you are.
Just like you once being a hermaphrodite.
In this world, some people like males and females.
Others aren’t interested in either. Others are born one gender but identify as the opposite gender.
Some people feel they’re a mixture of both.
There’s a lot of variety and all of it is okay, it’s just that not everyone agrees with that. ”
I need to read more. Can I use your laptop while you sleep?
“How would that work?”
I’ll read. You sleep. The more I learn, the quicker I can leave your body.
“Okay.”
Kaden bought chips on the way home and smiled as Joe whined with pleasure. He’d sort of assumed Joe would like everything he liked, but then he’d definitely not liked Marmite. He’d freaked out more about that than anything else.
They watched a programme about British castles on the laptop, another about rescues at sea, then laughed together over a comedy show about a vampire and a werewolf.
Well, Joe laughed after Kaden had explained the difference between fact and fiction.
Fiction was new to Joe. And music. Kaden couldn’t imagine living in a world without books and films and TV and music—without imagination.
He still kept having freak-out moments at the thought of having Joe inside him, but whenever he did, Joe did something to make that worry go away. Though the questions kept pouring into his head. How would Joe get out? What would happen to him when he was out? How could he manage on his own?
“Are you sure no one else survived the crash? What if they did and they launched a rescue mission to get the others out of the lab? What if they’ve reproduced? How quickly do you mature?”
I don’t believe anyone else survived. Reproduction requires exacting conditions. Gestation is six Earth months. Maturity occurs at eighteen Earth years.
“What happens at maturity? Is that when you are allocated your roles?”
Yes.
“Based on what?”
Your life up to that point. How you react with others. What you’ve achieved.
“How old are you?”
Thirty Earth years.
“I asked you before but tell me what you look like.”
Like nothing you have ever seen. You’d call us monsters. Be scared of us. You’d run away.
“From such small things?”
If an invasion force had been sent, you would have stood little chance. We’d have subdued all apex predators by one means or another. There are 1.4 million of what I used to be for every human on this planet.
“And all are protectors or hunters?”
There are more. Food producers. Maintenance. Teachers. Nursery. But only protectors and others take flights into space.
“Would you have taken over people’s bodies?”
That wasn’t the plan. We’re…
“You’re what?”
Venomous. But don’t worry. I would never poison you.
Oh fuck. Fuck. Kaden felt Joe calming him, but… What if the other blobs had avoided incineration and found a way inside someone else? What if they mated? Used humans as incubators? He gulped several times, then sighed as he felt more tingles along his nerve endings.
Calm down.
“What if two got out of the container? Could they mate? Would you be able to tell if they were inside someone? Would they know you were inside me?”
I’m unsure. But I’ll protect you.
Yet again, and he was sure the thought would keep cropping up, Kaden wondered if he was insane. Was that better or worse than having an alien creature living inside him? He suspected he’d be a lot more disturbed if Joe hadn’t been continually calming him.
Plug in your laptop, then sleep. I can open your eyes when you’re unconscious.
It was like having an invisible friend. Fine as a kid. Not fine at twenty-five. Had he set something in motion that could risk the safety of the planet? Even if he had, who could he tell? What proof did he have? No one would believe him.
Anxiety surged again and he felt Joe’s calming touch.
It was so weird. Every twinge he felt, every flutter of his stomach, he wondered if Joe was behind it.
If he thought about it too much, imagined an alien creature wrapped around his bones, surging in his veins, exploring his skull, it made him shudder.
Except when that happened, Joe intervened.
Kaden knew Joe was trying to help him, but it kept freaking him out.
He tried to put himself in Joe’s position. He must be frightened too.
I am.
~~~
Joe soothed Kaden into sleep. He understood his worries. Joe had plenty of his own. Gash and Lanu had been in Harris’ hair. They must have found a way out of the tank. Joe didn’t know if they were aware that he was inside Kaden. At least they were still in Harris’ hair when he’d left.
He wasn’t sure if he was doing the right thing in keeping quiet about that but Kaden would worry if he knew and there was nothing either of them could do.
Even so, he felt guilty. It was a strange sensation, a sort of churning that made him feel unsettled.
He’d been trained to always do the right thing—at least as far as his other was concerned.
Self-sacrifice. Obedience. Submission. Once he’d refused to bond as they fell to Earth, the sense of relief he’d felt had been overridden by the knowledge that he was going to die.
Except…
A human had saved him, given him a name, let him have some of his blood, which had provided so much information.
He’d fed him, shown him details about his planet and Joe had repaid those kindnesses by invading Kaden’s body.
In doing that, he’d risked Kaden’s life as well as his own.
THIS was guilt. But there had been so much he needed to know that he’d felt he had no choice.
He couldn’t have survived as a blob as Kaden had called him.
Trampled on, run over, washed away, dissected…
He shuddered. Joe needed a host in order to survive.
He was sorry he’d hurt Kaden and grateful that Kaden seemed to be adjusting to his presence. With a little help.
He’d not thought anyone else would get out of the tank. Now he knew that two had. Were there more? Maybe the deep clean at the lab would put paid to anyone else who’d escaped. He could only hope.
Now Joe had experienced life on Earth, he wanted to live. But the human body was complicated, delicate, and he wasn’t sure he could emerge without one or both of them being injured. That was something else he shouldn’t reveal.
Kaden would have been better off if the crash landing had destroyed them all. But it hadn’t. This was a second chance for Joe and he wouldn’t waste it. Gash and Lanu were a problem for the future, but for the time being, there was nothing he could do.
He started to read. He could keep Kaden asleep and yet still use him to search on the laptop. The more he knew, the better.