She holds up her hand. “You know what? This sounds like it’s going to be a long and confusing conversation. Maybe like something some might never understand. Why don’t we do the thing you need to do first, then explain.”
“That’s what I was trying to do…”
Infuriating, perfect, adorable little human. There is so much I want to do to her. With her. I want to whip her ass red and sink myself inside her, exploring every part of her pussy until she screams with reckless human orgasm. But that will have to wait. I am hoping that when this mess is fixed, she will remember. Maybe that memory will make her hate me. If it does, she’ll be able to choose what she wants with me. I could sleep with her now. I can smell her arousal. I can see the desire dancing in her eyes. But I have sworn I will never take advantage of her again.
I exist in the past, just as I do in the present. There is a version of me out there, waiting to hurt Ava. Waiting to sell her. And we’re going to use this cute little rinky-dink ship with the unexpected time drive to find him. This ship is my answer to everything, and I finally know how to use it.
* * *
Ava
“The first time we met, we both thought it the first time. The second time we met, I thought it the first time; now you have that illusion. I want to keep you in it. You might think better of me if I do.”
“Why would I not think well of you? You seem like a nice guy.” I say nice. I mean hot. He seems like a really fucking hot guy. I might not remember him, but my body is reacting to him like it knows what is inside his pants. Every bit of his body draws my attention inexorably, the muscular planes of his chest and upper arms make me harken back to when he dragged me from the bush. What a fool I was to panic then. I should have enjoyed every second I spent pressed up against him. I wonder if I can find a way to have that happen again somehow.
“Come on,” he says. “Take the co-pilot’s seat. This is about to get messy.”
“Messy, huh?” I sit down next to him and watch, stunned, as he rips the flight stick right off the ship. “Uh…”
“Don’t worry,” he says. “It’s supposed to do that.”
I really feel like that’s probably not true, but he seems confident. He runs one big green hand through his rakish hair, flashes me a bright grin, and stamps his foot on what my ancestors would have called the gas pedal.
The universe turns into a thin pink and yellow smear. I’m astounded by it, too shocked to really react with excitement or fear. I am the physical embodiment of OMG.
Suddenly, we stop.
“Where’s this?”
“The center of our universe.”
“It looks like a gas station.”
“It does,” Zed agrees. “It’s not.”
He docks the ship and we both disembark onto a rusty, shielded expanse of metallic deck which leads inexorably to a…
“Pie store? Can we have pie?”
“Afterwards,” he says.
“After what?”
“ZED!”
Someone shouts his name. We turn to see… Zed coming toward us? I feel like a parakeet who just discovered a mirror and doesn’t know what the heck is happening.
“Zed?” I reach for my Zed’s hand, just to make sure he’s actually there. This could be some weird space illusion. Or maybe, more likely, it’s just another guy who looks quite a lot like Zed coming toward us. Another member of his species who also has a penchant for wearing a harness which exposes his torso like a work of art.
“That is the alien who sold you into slavery you would not countenance, who thought nothing of what would happen to you when you were owned by another,” Zed says. He is speaking through clenched teeth. I feel rage emanating from him.
The other alien is coming closer. And closer. He shows no fear. He walks toward us as if we are all old friends. The closer he gets, the more I realize that my initial impression was correct. He doesn’t look like Zed. He is Zed.
“He. Uh. That. Hm. Er.”
This counts as a question Zed understands, because obviously there’s really only one question.
“He is me from another time when I made other choices. We have both been swimming in these time streams, you and I.”
“So we’ve done this before?”
“We’ve done a great many things before. But we’re coming to the end of things. The anomaly is collapsing. Time doesn’t like to be split up. It likes for its little creatures to pick a path. When the possibility field collapses, we need to be who we want to be.”
I think I understand him. I can’t be sure. I know that the other Zed does not seem angry. He is grinning broadly, extending his arms. They ripple with that hot alien muscle I am already coming to fucking crave. I am so many things. I am confused. I am lost. I am fucking horny.