Page 19 of Her Alien Boss

I do not need more than three hours sleep a night, but I laid here for almost ten with the human. She spent a great amount of the night tossing and turning, but I found that when I wrapped her up a little tighter, she would settle.

It has been fascinating watching her, though I know I am missing an almost endless set of missives from the others on this project. They expect me to be in with the human today.

“Hey,” she says.

“Hmm?”

“Who were we being attacked by? In the ship?”

“The Kensington Group.”

She snorts.

“What?”

“I come all this way, to the most alien part of the universe, and our OPs are called The Kensington Group?”

“It stands for something much longer and entirely unspeakable,” I explain. “They are competing with us to discover the Omicron Particle.”

“Right. The particle that collapses the seen and unseen into a third thing.”

She has a human’s understanding of what we are doing, but that is what we need. A simple mind. A simple eye. An uncomplicated creature who will not have a complex relationship to what is being uncovered. Sometimes, the universe will not unleash its magic for anything other than an innocent.

“Yes,” I say.

“What’s the third thing?”

“We don’t know yet,” I tell her. “But the implications are far reaching.”

“All of this for some implications? You brought me all this far? To do what, exactly?”

She is so adorable when she is confused.

“It’s going to become clear,” I tell her. “But for now, you need some breakfast. I want you well fed for your first day of work.”

“There’s really work?”

“Yes,” I laugh. “There’s work. I did not have you sent all this way merely to be a toy, though, I grant you, you would make a most excellent toy.”

She blushes and tries not to look pleased and fails entirely, then she tries not to seem turned on and is once again betrayed by the bouquet of pheromones that is filling the air.

“What is for breakfast?”

“Well, I have some human-safe foods, but you have to promise me you won’t eat anything that isn’t intended for you. Some of the foodstuffs we can consume would not sit well with you at all.”

“What would happen if I ate it?”

“You’d be ill, and depending how much you ate, you might even not survive it. So. Human rations only. Understand?”

I tap her nose gently to emphasize the point, which makes her smile.

“I get it,” she says.

* * *

Evie

His food smells so delicious I can barely stand it. My gruel, by comparison, is barely edible. I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but the prospect of just eating this for the next few months makes me absolutely miserable. I love food. I love all kinds of food. I love savory. I love sweet. I love meat. I love vegetables. I love… I can’t stop thinking about all the things I’d have if I could have them. And then there’s him, Arkon, downing what looks like a truly delicious plate of rolled-up dried meats.