Tamed By The Alien Barbarian by Celeste King
Candi
Spending time on Mars made me feel wistful. Looking out at this mining operation from my control room pod, it was easy to forget just how far I’d come. Sometimes I wondered if I deserved all of this.
“Hey boss babe,” Mandy gave a halfhearted knock at the door of my pod, leaning her bony shoulder against the frame. She was chewing gum, making exaggerated clicks.
I gave her a small smile and said, “Hey sugar. Come in.”
Mandy pulled a pen out from her bun and flipped open a notebook. She was wearing a tiny pencil skirt and button-down blouse that barely buttoned at all—it was identical to the costumes we wore when we used to do our ‘office girls’ double dance on Fridays during happy hour.
“I figured I’d give you a quick rundown. Is now an okay time?” she asked, popping a big pink bubble all over her lips.
“Um,” I sighed and looked out the window. “Sure.”
I tried to focus. I could vaguely hear Mandy reading off of her list, telling me that her morning meeting with Chioma had gone according to plan and that we were on track to meet our quota this week.
“Do you remember the old days?” I asked abruptly.
Mandy looked puzzled, but she drew her full lips into a knowing smile. “I remember,” she said. “I’ve got a mind like a steel trap.” She tapped the pen against her head.
“Okay,” I said quietly, leaning forward on my desk. “So you knew me back then. Do you think I’m out of place here?”
Mandy blew another bubble, looking back down at her notebook. “On Mars? We’re human, babe. If we’re talking biology, we’re all out of place here.”
I sighed, spluttering my lips and said, “Okay, but you remember when all this started? The Mars project?”
Mandy laughed, giving me an exasperated look. “What’s with you wanting to test my memory today?” she asked.
I ignored that retort and continued with my train of thought, “You remember everything Jaxil said? About not being beaten by a stripper?”
Mandy softened, smiling kindly at me. “Candi, you know that was all talk. He was just threatened.”
I knew she was right, but a small part of me wondered if he was right, too.
“You want to know what I remember?” Mandy asked abruptly. “I remember that you were always the baddest stripper in the room. Now you’re just the baddest boss in the galaxy.”
I grinned in spite of myself. “I’m a little preoccupied right now,” I told Mandy. “Can we catch up on business later?”
Mandy nodded and strutted out of the room. I sunk back in my chair, my mind wandering back to Jaxil. I remembered the first moment I’d seen him—so cocky in that press conference.
It was funny, it seemed like I’d known him for ages, but in reality it had only been a blip. I wished I could put my finger on what it was about him that I found so incredibly charming.
My mind continued to wander, back to the moment he bent me over and spanked me in front of the crowd; then to the moment I exposed his hard on to the thirsty cameras.
I giggled to myself. Mandy was right. I always knew how to keep the upper hand.
I couldn’t think about Jaxil without thinking about the last time we’d seen each other. I’d shown him the genetic test results stating we weren’t a match, and I had no idea what to make of his reaction.
He stiffened up when I mentioned the genetic test results, and he didn’t untense for the rest of the time that I was there. What was I supposed to think of that? Was he terrified at the prospect of being my match?
If I was being honest with myself, he didn’t even seem interested in touching me after I brought up the possibility of us being a match that morning. His face was an enigma when we read that sheet of paper together.
I had settled into this line of thought when I heard an explosion. My heart began to race immediately. An unplanned explosion on a mining operation was always cause for alarm.
I scrambled to check my communications system. I couldn’t get a clear visual on the mine itself, but I thought I could make out a cloud of smoke in the distance.
I stepped out of my office pod into the larger control room. The women were moving frantically around the space, trying to establish communication with the field operators or get an environmental reading.
The murmur of voices crescendoed into something near hysteria. I could feel the energy rising to the boiling point.
“What’s happening?” I asked. No one answered, and the ground shook again. “What is happening?” I asked again with greater emphasis.
One of the women looked over at me with wide eyes, “We can’t tell. It’s some kind of explosion.”
A broken audio transmission started to come in; I couldn’t make out most of it, but I keyed on words like “explosion” and “toxic gas,” confirming what I was just told.
As it became clear that the situation couldn’t be controlled, the women began to panic; one by one they backed away from their posts and sprinted down the hall. I didn’t know whether I should call after them, or try to save the operation myself.
They hustled through the door and disappeared quickly. Empty chairs spun in their absence, and a few broken audio transmissions came in, but they were getting progressively more frantic.
I tried to make contact with the field operators, but comms were clearly down for now. The building seemed to be trembling slightly.
The control room was almost empty, then I heard another explosion—it sounded much closer. I couldn’t wait any longer, I needed to make a run for an escape. I turned out of the room and ran down the hallway.
I could see the light from the door spilling in, but the trembling was getting more intense, and large clouds of dust were forming outside the door. Just as I reached for the door, the roof collapsed in front of me.
I spun on my heels to try and find another way out, but I realized the path in the other direction was blocked by fire. I was completely trapped. I felt myself go dumb as I realized there was no real chance for escape.
I started sweating, the heat of the fire bearing down on me. My eyes darted around for another exit path, but only one sliver of light peaked through the collapsed roof in front of me. It was hopeless.
Panic set in. My lungs felt tight, and I wondered if the toxic gas that caused the explosion had seeped into the building, or if I was just inhaling smoke. Either way, it was getting more difficult to breathe each second.
At that moment, Jaxil filled my mind. I thought of his body, his smile, and the feeling of his weight on top of me. I thought about that last tense kiss we shared, and I was filled with regret for those final moments.
I’d done a lot of things in my life, but there were very few I regretted. Thinking back on that last morning with Jaxil, I regretted not being warmer. I regretted not savoring those moments with his eyes running over me so tenderly.
I tried to take shallow breaths; I stood still and stayed as calm as I could while I tried to form a plan. A fireman once told me while I was giving him a lapdance that the best thing you can do in a crisis is stay calm. I figured if death wanted me, she’d have to fight to come and get me.
The world around me started to spin. In those dizzy moments, I was sure I could feel Jaxil near me somehow.
