Volume 3: Gamma-12, Chapter 3.17

The days and nights continued at such a wonderful, relaxing pace; while nights were always reserved for Eve to unleash her increasingly more controlling and dominating love, we spent the days with the rest of our group or with any friends we made along the way. We tried a few more alien sports, and while none were as exciting as hoverball, I was still excited to try anything new with Eve. We ended up going to a morning yoga class one day, but with the sexy outfit Eve wore (those tight yoga pants and what was basically a sports bra) I had to pull Eve out of the class early for some desperately needed alone time. We spent a couple days at the beach (again, the bikini Eve wore required more emergency alone time) and we spent another day on the water on some cool hover-boat. Everything was free to rent of course, you just needed a reservation.

That was probably one of the coolest things about the station—everything being free. You could walk in anywhere and join, no hidden fees or private events. Of course, if people wanted privacy there were some upper decks above the paradise core for more intimate gatherings, but there was so much to do down in the core Eve and I never ventured beyond it.

We were heading towards the end of our first cycle when Nadresh, the beautiful green wife to the large slug-man reached out to Eve, asking if we wanted to grab brunch. We agreed and met up at a restaurant that honestly reminded me of some techno-version of a 50s diner back on Earth.

“Adam, Eve, so glad to see you again!” Kurgg called excitedly, sitting outside the table since his significant girth wouldn’t let him fit in a normal chair or booth.

Nadresh got up to give Eve a quick hug and gestured for us to join them. Once we were all settled, Nadresh smiled as wide as she could, looking like she was about to burst, “So, how’s the honeymoon suite?”

Despite how bold Eve could be, she still had her shy side; her cheeks flushed pink as she stifled her giggle against my shoulder. Kurgg laughed jovially, “That good, eh?” He nudged his wife with his elbow, “Told you it was best to wait a while before the invite.”

Nadresh rolled her eyes, “He acts like I don’t remember what it’s like being a newlywed.”

“But we were never a handsome couple like them, eh? Just one half of a handsome whole.” Kurgg joked.

Nadresh just sighed, “Oh Kurgg, enough of that.”

I smiled brightly, “It’s been a lot of fun, yes.”

Kurgg laughed again, a deep rumbling sound, “Look at him, coming out of his ears it is!”

Nardresh shook her head slowly, “You two really are cute together, you can just see how much you

adore

each other.”

Eve rested her head on my shoulder and draped her tentacles around my neck, then sighed contently, “Would you believe Adam resisted me at first?”

Kurgg and Nadresh nearly looked appalled, “No!”

I rolled my eyes, “I’m a human from Earth. You ever hear of such a planet?” They both shook their heads, “Right, I’m just a probationary citizen—got abducted into the Empire years ago and have been living in frontier space ever since.”

That was my established cover story, close enough to the truth to be believable.

Realization seemed to dawn on Kurgg’s face, “Oh I see, had limited interactions with alien folk, except those what abducted you.”

Nadresh cocked her head to the side, “How long have you been in the Empire?”

I shrugged, “Not that long, but enough to get settled into a good job and a stable career.”

“Didn’t want to return to Earth?” Kurgg asked.

“Hell no, dumb rock of a planet with technology thousands of years behind what we have in the Empire.”

Kurgg chuckled at that, “Understandable.”

“So then how did you two end up together?” Nadresh pressed.

Here came the rest of our backstory Eve had a lot of fun embellishing.

“Well, my Adam was sent to Entana for work, his first Imperial core world you know. Right away I was smitten with this dreamboat, but he was convinced I was plotting to do something horrible to him.” Eve explained.

I shrugged, “Gorgeous women weren’t known to so boldly proposition me back on Earth.”

Nadresh seemed surprised by that, “Really? You seem quite beautiful yourself; are you more average for your race specifically?”

I sighed, “We have much stricter gender roles back on Earth, so basically it was always up to the man to pursue an eligible woman.”

Nadresh recoiled as though she found the idea wildly unpleasant, “How dreadful.”

I nodded, “So, this beautiful girl starts telling me how perfect we would be together, how she would spoil me and take care of me and love me, I thought it was a scam.”

Kurgg’s eyestalks rose up, “They

have

those kinds of scams on Earth?”

“No wonder you didn’t want to go back.” Nadresh confirmed.

I waved it off, “Every kind of scam you can imagine; greed runs rampant back on my home planet.”

Nadresh looked between Eve and me, “Then what did you do, this gorgeous woman makes such a passionate declaration of love, and you denied her thinking it some trick?”

I nodded, “Pretty much.”

Eve smiled, “But I was persistent.”

Kurgg laughed, “Good for you, dear.”

I sighed, “Everything about her seemed too good to be true, I was sure it was all some scheme. But she stayed by me, day by day, refusing to relent. Eventually we went on a date together, and from that point on I was hooked.”

Eve leaned forward, pretending to be sneaky, “He doesn’t realize it was a scam all along; I plan on loving him and spoiling him and doting on him for the rest of his days, and in exchange I’m going to hoard all his love for myself, mwuahahahahaa.”

Kurgg and Nadresh laughed together, “Oh my, she is just adorable.” Nadresh nearly sang.

“So what drew you to him in the first place dear, to fight for the affections of someone so resistant?” Kurgg asked.

Eve just shrugged, “He’s just

it

for me—my one and only. Humans call them soulmates, and I think that’s what he is for me. I can’t explain it much better than that, but from the first time I saw him it was like some beacon calling to me—pulling me in.” She looked up at me with that dreamy expression, making my heart melt, “I loved him from the very start.”

Kurgg blew…

something

into a tissue and had to dab away tears from his eyestalks, “If that isn’t the most beautiful story I ever heard—oh, there I go, here come the waterworks.” He full on started crying now, curling his eyestalks down to his tissue. Nadresh beside him patted him gently and made quiet cooing sounds.

“Then we dated long-distance for about a year, and I visited when I could back on Entana, but eventually Eve put her foot down and said she was sick of the distance and wanted to start our future together. So, we got married, moved in together, and I’ll tell you we couldn’t be happier.” I finished the fake story—though the love and how happy we were was absolutely real.

“And then your company sent you on the retreat, and thanks to Glorva Corp’s policy you were upgraded to the honeymoon suite, my how marvelous.” Nadresh clapped her hands together.

Eve trilled a little next to me, enjoying the storytelling and the companionship, “And what about you two? You said you had your own fun story to share.”

Nardresh turned to her husband, “Do you want to tell it or are you…?” She paused, seeing if he’d gotten himself under control yet.

Kurgg waved her off, “I’m fine now dear.” He turned his eyestalks to her, “Still, you should tell it; you remember more details.”

Nadresh rolled her eyes but didn’t protest, “Well, it started when Kurgg was a maintenance man working for Ten-corp, the robotics company. Do you two…?” She asked, and when we both shook our heads, she shrugged and moved on, “Doesn’t matter. Anyways I returned to my father’s compound for the summer while Kurgg was busy updating our server-bots for some big state-dinner Father was hosting—”

“Her father, the southern baron of the planetoid Exo-Kincorin, don’t let her forget that detail.” Kurgg added with a chuckle.

Having no idea where Exo-Kincorin was, I at least knew what a baron was, “So you come from money?”

Nadresh rolled her eyes again, “And every suiter in the sector knew it too. Every stately dinner my father held, some dozen young men always vied for my attention, and I was sure this would be no different; felt like I was just some pawn in my father’s political career.” She paused and turned to Kurgg, “Well, there was one man who didn’t care who I was at all.”

Kurgg chuckled and nodded, “Oh I cared all right, I was annoyed.”

“

Annoyed

?” Eve repeated.

Nadresh chuckled too, “Oh yes. I was busy getting ready for the dinner and didn’t see Kurgg crouched over his tools and ended up kicking into one of the server-bots he was working on. I’ll tell you; he let me have it.”

Kurgg nodded, “I was about 40 bots deep out of 50 and she completely broke one I’d already updated. Boy was I pissed.”

“You certainly let me know it too.”

Kurgg chuckled, “I don’t even remember what all I said, but I remember it was probably the most unkind I’ve ever been to anyone in my entire life.”

Nadresh started ticking off fingers, “Called me some spoiled rich girl, air head, head in the clouds, couldn’t watch where I’m going, on and on he yelled.”

“And then in the middle of my tirade she finally stands up and remembers who she is and says, ‘you can’t talk to me like this, I’ll tell my father, and he’ll fire you’!” Kurgg repeated.

“To which he responds, ‘I don’t work for your father, he hired our company to do a job and if he doesn’t like it he can take it up with my manager’.” Nadresh laughed and looked over at her husband fondly.

“So did you tell your father?” I asked.

Nadresh shook her head, “No, because I realized he was right, and what’s more I remembered how important it was we get the server-bots updated and ready for the big dinner, and I suddenly realized I would be to blame for screwing up my father’s big night.”

“Then you realized you’d be in trouble instead.” Eve surmised.

Nadresh nodded, then turned to Kurgg, “You want to tell them what I did next?”

Kurgg rolled his eyestalks, “She starts

bawling

, like she’s just beside herself, falls to the floor sobbing, apologizing to me, telling me not to tell her father, saying how stressed she is at college and how much she hates these stupid dinners.”

“He immediately folds and tries to comfort me—awkwardly I might add, telling me it was okay, and he was stressed too and didn’t mean it.”

“I felt bad, honest I did; never meant to snap at the poor dear like that.” Kurgg admitted.

“So he takes me into the kitchen and gets me a glass of water, tells me to calm down, he’ll take care of it, then just leaves me there to go finish his work.” Nadresh chuckled to herself, shaking her head, “I still don’t get how you got all those server-bots updated in time.”

Kurgg placed his chubby hands on his…hips? The meaty part of his slug torso, “I was a good maintenance man, what can I say?”

“And then he stuck in your mind, right?” Eve guessed.

Nadresh nodded, “Oh boy did he; this maintenance man who yelled at me, daughter of a baron—made me

cry

and then left like I was no real concern of his.”

“So how did you go from getting yelled at and crying to dating?” I asked.

Nadresh shook her head, “Kurgg the maintenance man disappeared that night, his work all done, server-bots all updated. So then I attended the dinner as usual, with all those foppish boys bragging about their parent’s surnames trying to vie for my attention.” She shrugged, “And I just couldn’t help but think how the maintenance man cared so little for who I was, for the money I had, and continued with his diligent work.”

“

And

I was kind to you, let’s not forget that part too.” Kurgg insisted.

Nadresh rolled her eyes, “After you made me

cry

.” She turned back to us, “So for the rest of that summer I made it a project of mine to see what other robots needed maintenance in the house, telling my father that Kurgg did such a good job with the server-bots he should only request him.”

Eve giggled, “

Really

?”

Nadresh nodded, “Ended up seeing him a few more times that summer, always around when he was working, wanting to see if he would treat me differently—like some political prize or whatever, I wasn’t sure, just curious to see if he was always as authentic as our first meeting.”

“And was he?” I asked.

Nadresh laughed, “To a fault, had no interest in a silly rich girl like me; no time for small talk, just there to get the job done.”

“I was at least kinder those other visits, at least admit to that.” Kurgg insisted.

Nadresh laughed again, “Yes, he was always rather professional and kind, but after every visit it just made me more curious—made me want to see what was underneath that professional exterior of his.”

“How’d you end up getting around that?” Eve pressed.

Kurgg fixed her with a flat glare and Nadresh just giggled, “Eventually they ran out of regular maintenance for me to perform, so I show up one day to find I’m supposed to fix a completely broken droid.” Kurgg leaned forward, “And let me tell you right away I

knew

this was no accident, the droid was clearly broken apart on purpose. So I confront Nadresh, ask her what the hell is going on, if she knew who’d been messing around with the droids or what all was happening.”

Nadresh shrugged, “And then I asked him to dinner.”

My eyebrows shot up, “Just like that?”

Nadresh nodded, “I was caught, knew I wouldn’t have a chance like this again—and I could see he was getting frustrated and might start yelling again. In that moment I realized it wasn’t just curiosity that had me ask my father to keep hiring him, and the idea of never seeing him again made my heart ache. I knew right then I needed to end whatever game I was playing and get serious with him.”

Eve and I turned to Kurgg, “What did you do?” Eve pressed.

Kurgg chuckled to himself, “I think I looked down at the droid, right? Wondered if you were talking to that instead of me at first.”

Nardresh chuckled too, “I asked him again, told him I knew a great place nearby that had expansive menus that served all kinds of people.”

Kurgg shook his head, “I still thought something was up, like she was trying to get out of trouble again. I think I would’ve just left if I wasn’t so shocked over the whole thing.”

Eve smiled excitedly, “So you two had dinner and that’s when you realized you wanted to be together.”

Nadresh shook her head, “Not just then, dinner was great and all, but at the end of the meal Kurgg got out his communicator like he was going to pay for his portion—like it was just standard procedure.”

Kurgg chuckled again, “Hell I didn’t know what was going on, didn’t even know it was a date, not at first.”

Nadresh chuckled too, “Then I kind of yelled at him, asked him if he even knew who I was; I was rich from a powerful family, like I couldn’t treat him to a nice meal.” She turned to Kurgg, “Remember what you said then?”

He smiled, “I said, ‘no I don’t, but miss I think I really would like to get to know you now’.”

Nadresh clapped her hands together, “And that was it. From that moment on he was mine and I didn’t care who might protest—didn’t care about my family or their connections, I knew I was going to marry that man right there.”

Kurgg grabbed Nadresh’s hand, “Three years later we got married—delayed because I wanted to save up some money first so we could build our future on a stable foundation.” Kurgg said seriously, and Nadresh rolled her eyes at that, “And 40 years later we’re still going strong.”

Nadresh turned to us, “Took an entire decade for me to convince him to quit working and rely on my family money, but even when he was financially secure he still wanted to work and built up his own maintenance company—ended up buying out Ten-corp and everything.”

Kurgg patted his wife’s hand, “You married a hard worker, were you really surprised I wanted to keep working hard?”

Nardresh smiled fondly at her husband and leaned over to kiss his fleshy slug lips. They were definitely an odd couple—a beautiful, classic exotic alien female and a gross slug-man, but honestly after hearing their story I found them to be adorable in their own special way.

“That is

such

a cute story.” Eve sighed contently and leaned her head on my shoulder again, always playing with my fingers and massaging my neck with her tentacles—always wanting to share affection with me, such a deeply loving girl. It made me realize Eve was actually quite the romantic, how much she wanted to dote on me and just love me, so of course she would love to hear other people’s love stories. I should see if she likes romantic movies next time we want to veg-out with some classic Earth entertainment.

Kurgg and Nadresh turned to us, “That young passion is great, but don’t forget love takes time and effort; you need to grow and maintain that love. Never forget the spark that brought you two together, but always strive to be better the next day.” Kurgg said seriously.

Nadresh nodded, “Love your partner, trust your partner, and above all else prioritize your partner over everything.”

Spending time with such a lovely couple, it ended up being a wonderful day. We split apart from the couple insisting we would catch up with them some other time, and from that point on Eve and I just kind of wandered around aimlessly. Obviously we had plenty of that young passion shared between us, and it would probably never go away since we could be young and immortal forever thanks to Eve and her Protazoan physiology and the enzymes she could inject me with. It meant we’d have a lot of work ahead of us to make this relationship work through the centuries—the

eons

. We had to rely on more than just sex, we had to share a real solid foundation of trust and companionship.

We ended up back in our honeymoon suite earlier than we realized, and while we could’ve just torn into each other like normal, we ended up just cuddling on the couch together, talking about hopes and dreams, about promises and the future we would share.

There was no play for dominance that night, no sense of control. For the first time in a long time Eve and I were completely equal, and in that bond I think something really deep blossomed between us, a new understanding of trust, and a view towards the future.