Alien Seduction

I wake in a somber mood as the ship's beeping notifications ring out in an insistent drone. I open my eyes slowly and look out the window at deep space as my ship flies faster than the speed of light. I’m nearly there, nearly to the planet they call ‘Earth.’ I stretch in my chair, running my hands down my muscled abdomen as I pull myself to awakeness. It’s been a long trip from Avant, at least a week. I’ve never been this far from my clutch for this long, and my heart aches for home.

I blink, my slitted pupils dilating as I focus on the displays inlaid over the glass of the windows. They show my destination, telling me how close I am, what to expect, what humans look like and behave like. The AI of my ship chirps this information in my native tongue as if all my people don’t already know everything there is to know. We’ve had years to learn them, their language, their natural and unnatural behaviors. I consider myself an expert on all things Human, so hearing it again and again goes in one pointed ear and out the other.

I twist the piercing at the tip of my right ear, feeling the hoop spin as I fidget. I stand, stretching again, and pull my long purple hair over my right shoulder. I make my way from the control chair at the front of my ship to the living quarters behind. I should be with Rain, protecting them. I shouldn’t be light-years away in a metal ship full of wires and lights flying through time and space. I should be home, surrounded by nature, drifting my fingers through the streams of water that rise to the sky above.

I stomp, irritated, to the private room in which to alleviate my bodily fluids and slam my hands on the counter. I stare at the reflective pool on the wall, at myself, and scowl.

My dark purple hair is tangled, falling down below my hips in straight tresses that were once twisted intricately. My green eyes burn with my anger and agitation, and my light purple/gray skin looks tighter on my bones than ever before. I have taken the form of a seeder as my preferred state, and I stare at the muscles that ripple down my chest and the darker patches of hair that cover my chest and groin.

As a seeder, I can provide the bearers with young, and I feel more powerful this way. More capable. Whereas my bearer self is soft and curved, my seeder form is hard and powerful. This is what I need in my position: strength. I need to invoke fear in those who would hurt my charge.

I need these humans to see me as a creature not to be fucked with.

My mind drifts back to my liege, and my long fingers rub tired eyes as I lean on the counter. For as long as I have been sufficiently aged, I have been with Rain. Always at their side, keeping them safe from enemies within and without. Those who think humans can’t be trusted and those who want the position Rain holds. The very few Avantians on Rain’s side will protect them; they’ll have to. Because I have a duty first and foremost to my Creator's Clutch.

My ‘family,’ as humans would say. My Creator’s Clutch, her ‘siblings,’ have branched off to many different paths, and Sage, my ‘cousin,’ chose to go to Earth and study these humans. This is why I have left Rain, left my duty. For Sage, for their distress signal.

I am the only one in the Creator’s clutch who has gone on the path of protection, while most of the clutch went to Earth with the first wave of relocation. So I am the only one who is capable of retrieving Sage.

The clutch on Earth that Sage has gone with prefers to study, to learn, and even though they went with a clutch of protectors, they still seem to need me. Sage would not summon me to their side for anything other than a dire situation, knowing my position, so I had no choice but to come to their side.

I tear my gaze away from my own reflection, turning to strap on the intricate black and gold web-like structure that covers those intimate areas humans prefer to be covered. On Avant, we go places as we were born, wearing nothing, or armored if we need to be.

Higher-ranking Avantians will cover themselves in gauzy flowing fabric that clings to the body as if it has a life of its own, flowing on a breeze even in an enclosed area. Humans are apparently sensitive to such coverings, so what I wear does not shift like that, but clings to my body like a second skin. Like the vines of the great Arbor, the clothes twist around my limbs and come together thicker on all the parts I should keep hidden for the sensitive species I’m about to encounter.

Historians say humans prefer us to keep our hair loose rather than the intricate twisting braids that keep our long hair away from our face, so I comb through the tangles until my hair flows softly down my back. I refuse to recall how my hair became such a mess, as I will likely not see that bearer again in this lifetime. They were a fun distraction the night before my mission, and that’s it. A distraction, a way to relieve tension. A momentary lapse of control in a time of carnal need. Having been in cryo sleep for most of this trip, I hadn’t bothered fixing it.

The AI chirps at me again, drawing my attention, and I walk out of the small room with determination. I will go retrieve Sage and bring them home. It will take a sun cycle at most. They called me so they will present themselves, and I can return my wayward cousin to Avant. Why they couldn’t send a more detailed explanation for the summons will be my very first question, and then I will release my wrath on them for pulling me away from my responsibilities.

The display on the window shows the ship slowing, and as it slows, I watch the stars and planets of this solar system come into view. I find it astonishing that there are so many planets around this sun and yet only one has a lifeform on one planet. I sit back in my chair, watching as the little blue marble comes into view. Earth is covered in bodies of water, instead of the rivulets that run into our sky and throughout our planet.

On Earth, the water falls from the sky instead of being one with it. On Avant, water is everywhere over every surface on every plant and every body. There is no certain place it connects with life and pools into holes or valleys as it travels over a too-dry planet. It is everywhere. Earth is so different to Avant, and I cannot wait to never see Earth again. I don’t even want to see it this time.

The AI shows me all the different lifeforms on Earth on the window, listing animals both sentient and those that would devour me. Where I’m going, the only creature that can devour me is a human; their ‘animals’ pose no threat to me, not with my years of training. These humans live in metal houses that rise far into the sky. They gather there, live in boxes, and do menial tasks instead of jobs that have meaning and better their environment.

They collect their ‘people’ and put them in smaller boxes. Their young are all placed in one room for several hours a day, learning as they sit. It’s mind-boggling to me how they pack together as if for storage instead of experiencing the freedom of their planet.

I groan, placing my chin on my hand and slouching in the chair. The worst part of this entire mission will be the humans' stagnant bodies. They can be a seeder or a bearer, nothing in between. How do they function without being able to channel the needs of each? How will they lift heavy objects in their bearer form? How will they deliver and care for children in their Seeder form? None of it makes sense, and I don’t want to learn.

The less of these weird creatures I see, the better. I try to imagine Rain fighting beside me as a bearer and laugh out loud. To see their golden skin holding a blade with their breasts flailing with every swing? Preposterous. I then try to imagine them as their Seeder self, trying to care for entire Clutches that are not their own, with blood splattered on their face. The Clutches would be terrified, not comforted. One must be a Seeder when ordering and controlling the clutches, but a bearer when caring for them. How else can you function as a society?

I study the ‘male’ and ‘female’ forms on my screen, noting their bodies are quite similar to ours save a few differences. Some Avantians have delved into watching humans’ mates, saying the differences are fascinating, but I never cared to look. The reproductive systems of lesser beings do not interest me in the slightest. They are not an advanced species, still stuck on their planet. They are no better than the animals they insist on keeping as pets instead of using them for food. I will never understand them, and I have no intention to.

I lean forward, addressing everything I must do to merge with this planet’s flimsy atmosphere and begin the descent. Their metal buildings scream at me with how dead they are, their gray, clouded sky blocking the view of anything green below. They have long since destroyed most of this planet's natural vegetation, making room for housing, but I hear there are some protected places they call “Forests.” Those are the only things I’d like to see, and the only thing I’d like to do here is try their food. Then I will leave, never to return.

I plot my descent once I’m in view of the surface, looking all around for a place to land the ship and begin my search, but all I can see is the enormous dwellings. I lower still, flying through their metal boxes as smaller metal boxes move below me. The muted shades of humans expose themselves, looking up at the ship and pointing. Pale pink humans, brown humans, humans as dark as night on Avant. None of them show their true colors and live in their muted state. We choose our color at puberty; I cannot imagine staying so plain.

Ahead of me, I see a great green clearing surrounded by trees. It is the only green I’ve seen since entering their airspace. This may be the closest I’ll get to a human ‘forest,’ and I decide this is the place. I fly above it and begin the landing protocol as I leave my seat and go back to my dwelling to gather everything I’ll need to find Sage.

When I turn around to gauge if the ship has landed safely, I freeze in place. I’m surrounded; metal boxes with wheels holding humans are everywhere. Flying metal tubes soar overhead, some speeding by and some hovering as their blades spin above them. They are all, every one of them, aiming the metal tools that expend deadly projectiles at my ship. Confused, I walk to the window and look down at them as they gather around the ship like angry insects. My ship is hit with bright lights, and a human is making its voice louder as it screams towards me. I lean over, studying the strange actions of even stranger humans as I turn on my communications so I can hear the small ‘man’ dressed in green and gold beneath me. He looks angrier than anyone, and he seems to be in charge.

“Come out with your hands up!” he roars, and I back away from the window and growl. Why would I raise my hands? What right does this creature have to tell me how I am to hold my own body? Is this part of how they teach their clutches to obey blindly?

“If you do not comply, we will open fire on your ship!” the human roars, and I bare my teeth. My fangs threaten to pierce my own lips as I snarl down at these inconsequential beings. They must be confused, uneducated about my kind. I will have to explain to them the proper way to greet an Avantian when it comes to our settlements here.

I will have to be careful, as they are of inferior intelligence…

I rack my mind, trying to recall important information on how to deal with the species when agitated. The Seeders are deemed threatening; the first Clutch learned that quickly. How did they combat that? I can’t seem to recall…

A small female in black coverings that expose long pink legs runs up to the man speaking, and it hits me. He’s looking at her with hatred, an irritated scowl that she is distracting him. They feel females are lesser, not dangerous, and that’s how the first clutch was able to settle here. They presented as Bearers until the population accepted them. So this is what I must do.

I close my eyes, contacting my body with my mind and making the transformation. I feel myself grow shorter, my body softer. I grow a youngling’s sustenance on my chest, and I lose my Seeding staff. When I open my eyes, I appear as what humans call a ‘Female’. My body is soft, rounded, and my chest hangs in supple round lobes. My clothes are synced with my body so they have shaped with me, but I communicate with them to have them shape coverings for my feet as well as grow over the roundness of my chest.

I’m uncomfortable as a bearer, but I will do what I must to calm the humans.

The door to my ship hisses open when I wave my hand, the lighter gases they call air mixing with the heavier gases that I breathe. It takes me a moment to become accustomed to taking smaller, faster breaths, but I don't let it show. I square my shoulders and take one of the two steps to the ground and come face to face with the man who was speaking to me.

“I am Captain Grieves of the United States Army,” he informs me, placing his hands on his hips as I watch him carefully. “You should not be here, Avantian.”

“I’ve come to retrieve a member of my Clutch; they called me,” I explain, stepping down to the green of the ground below me. Captain Grieves narrows his eyes at me and his lips thin.

“No one called you,” he growls, eyes growing darker as he looks me up and down. I step closer to him and look up; in this form he is taller than me, and disgust curls his lips.

“If you could direct me to the… I believe you call it the ‘settlement’? I would be very appreciative,” I tell him, smiling as they say humans do, and his disgust turns to pure hatred.

“The only place you’re going is a cell!” he roars, and suddenly human hands grab my arms and hold me captive. I blink, looking up at them in confusion.

“You are holding me in a manner that I cannot move; kindly release me? I am here peacefully, as are the rest of my people. I don't understand this Earthly greeting.” The faces of the men contort into smiles that I can only decode as hungry. Their eyes look at my form with a desire only shared between intimate mates.

I narrow my eyes and turn back to the Captain; he’s laughing. “Take me to the Avantians, and I will be on my way. We have settled here; we live peacefully together, do we not?” The men holding me laugh with the Captain, and he steps closer to me and places his projectile launcher under my chin and forces me to look into his eyes.

“I’ll take you to them, alright, and then you will learn the new role your people have here and learn how to behave accordingly. You will be a welcome addition to the Red District.”

The way he speaks makes my blood go cold.

“Are we not companion species? Do we not live among each other peacefully? Our reports say we are as one people living side by side…” I start, but the laughter and hatred in his eyes make me trail off.

“Avantians do not live peacefully here; they live here with a purpose. If they do not comply?” He removes his tool from my chin and points it to my right. I stand up straighter when I see a gray Avantian being brought forth. Their eyes do not shine, their skin holds no color, and when we meet gazes, the horror on their face fills me with anger.

“What have you done to them?” I roar, but Grieves doesn’t answer. He fires his tool, and I watch in shock as a great hole appears in the Avantian’s head and he falls to the ground. Dead.

“This is what we do to the scum who do not obey,” Grieves whispers, spitting on the body. I fall to my knees, shock and disbelief making me feel sick. “Will you obey, creature? Or will you die as this disobedient animal has?”

They are dead; he spat on them, called them an animal. Fluid fills my eyes as I slowly look back up at Grieves, and my lips pull back from my teeth as I growl low in my throat. I feel my body ripple, change, until my muscles thicken and I rise taller than the Captain.

“You have made a grave mistake, human!” I roar, and he laughs at me again.

“So that is how it will be, Avantian?” He waves his hand, and something stings my arm. I react without thinking, swinging my arm out and tossing the human aside. It’s the smaller female I saw earlier, and I feel guilty as I watch her body hit my ship and crumble against the metal. She is dead, done, just like the Avantian. I didn't mean to kill her. My vision blurs, and I look towards my arm. Something is sticking out of it, something small that once held fluid.

“What is your name?” Captain Grieves demands as I fall to my knees again, the world seeming to sway and undulate as my eyelids grow more and more heavy.

“Ember…” I tell him, and my words are garbled in my throat.

“Ember, you and your ship are now the property of the US Army. You will be relocated for training and conditioning. You will reside in Red District Row One until you are purchased or given a position elsewhere.”

“What?” I mumble, my lips not seeming to work right anymore.

“You will never see Avant again, Ember!” Captain Grieves roars, and my world fades to black.