It was a lot more doom and gloom than I was expecting, but I was definitely glad we talked to Doctor Kianna. I couldn’t believe I’d been so careless—so na?ve even; did I really think a secret Imperial mission vessel wouldn’t be up to as much or more shady shit than what all the earth government got up to? The failsafe and the attached cardiac monitor—we were definitely stuck aboard The Radiance for the foreseeable future; we talked about leaving if we ever got bored of hunting down the other Predazoans, now clearly that option was ripped away from us. Still, I already said I wanted to keep our relationship secret, now we just had a dozen good reasons to keep it that way.

  Lazing around on the couch with Eve, I realized we never actually had the relationship talk, “Hey, what do you—how do you consider us?” I asked inelegantly.

  Eve laying across my lap looked up at me and giggled, “You wanna try that again, handsome?”

  I rolled my eyes, “What are we together? I know you said mates before, but that just sounds so…primitive.”

  Eve sat back up and turned around to drape her legs across my lap, “What are you thinking?”

  I shrugged, “I dunno. Like, you’re my soulmate, but I don’t wanna just call you that. And you’re definitely more than my girlfriend.”

  Eve’s eyes lit up, “Girlfriend?” She trilled excitedly.

  I was taken aback, “What, really?”

  Eve smiled brilliantly, causing my heart to stutter, “I love that—so human.” She leaned forward and kissed me passionately before I could even respond.

  I couldn’t help but be amused by her enthusiasm over something so simple, and I pulled back so I could get a word in, “Seriously? You don’t think we’re more than that to each other?” I asked.

  Eve’s eyes danced with amusement, “Of course we are, but I love the idea of going through the natural progression of a human relationship with you.”

  “You mean…?” I nodded along.

  Eve giggled to herself, happy as a schoolgirl, “Girlfriend, fiancée, wife eventually.” She said dreamily.

  It suddenly felt like my heart would burst—Eve, my wife, “You want to?”

  Eve giggled again but placed a hand on my lips to stop me, “Slow down boy, I need girlfriend time first, then fiancée time, then we can talk about getting married.”

  I’d always assumed I would end up married—back on earth, with a house and a dog and 2.5 kids and all that. But that was all just because that’s what’s supposed to happen, yet I was in my 30s and I moved back in with my grandparents after having a mental breakdown; obviously I wasn’t actively pursuing that future, just figured it might happen.

  But here, this was the future I really wanted—more than anything I ever wanted in my entire existence. I didn’t even care about the house and 2.5 kids (no idea about Eve and the kids thing and was not in a rush to figure that out), I would even be fine stuck being a prisoner with Eve aboard The Radiance, so long as we were always together.

  I smiled and leaned down to kiss her again, “Okay, we’ll do the normal human thing.”

  “I definitely want to get married on earth though.” Eve offered matter-of-factly.

  “Well now that means we might not be married for a long, long time.”

  Eve shook her head, “We’ll figure something out—down the road on the way to our future.” She smiled, leaning back up to kiss me again.

  It was crazy how something so small was so exciting and meaningful, all just because it was with Eve.

  “Evie, my girlfriend.” I tried aloud, and really it didn’t seem like enough, but it was amusing and exciting all the same.

  “Adam, my boyfriend.” Eve trilled a little giggle, then leaned back and pulled her shirt off, revealing those perfect breasts I was obsessed with, “Now come fuck your girlfriend.”

  ***

  It was like heaven being with Eve, in our own little paradise in our apartment. Back when I was recovering from my breakdown at my grandparent’s house I felt a little stir crazy being couped inside for so long; couldn’t get into my projects or hobbies, I was bored everyday but with no motivation to do anything, I was basically just miserable. Here aboard The Radiance, I was never bored around Eve, I always felt happy and satisfied, and honestly I didn’t even really want to leave our quarters—didn’t have the desire to go out and do anything; we would have been content to stay together in the cozy apartment forever.

  We spent a lot of time lazing around of course; I had a long list of classic earth movies I needed to get through with Eve, all my favorites. We also watched plenty of anime, some of my favorite TV shows or cartoons, and we even played classic earth videogames together—Eve enjoyed all of it, and we were always wildly affectionate with each other snuggling on the couch. Despite her enjoyment, there was one strange thing we discovered while watching a lot of earth media; it turned out she possessed some vague memories from the human biomass she consumed, and while it was never as vivid as a full-blown memory with the way Eve assimilated those humans back on earth (wanting to be her own person without outside influence) the ghostly memories remained in the back of her mind. It wasn’t a big deal or anything, but she knew Darth Vader was Luke’s father right away—like a strange kind of instinct; she didn’t know all the details, but the knowledge was somewhere deep in her hivemind. Other than a couple wildly famous spoilers already being known, it didn’t seem like much of an issue—I knew Eve really was her own person after all, not some collection of human minds meshed together or anything.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Aside from lounging around, we also delved into a couple of our creative projects together; Eve started working on some jewelry, and I got back into drawing, trying to get back into working on that comic book idea of mine. Eve was always wildly supportive of anything creative I wanted to do, but she could be quite the distraction; seeing how well I could sketch, Eve had the wonderful idea I should draw her naked—work on my anatomy as she said it. Well, pretty much anytime Eve’s anatomy was on full display, it would usually only result in one thing; we interrupted my sketch so many times to fuck, I honestly don’t think it will ever get finished.

  I’d asked Eve before we were together if she was using alien pheromones to seduce me, and she denied it then, but now I knew it was just everything about her that aroused and enticed me; she said her body had evolved to be the perfect match for me, and that meant everything about her was irresistible to me. I knew she would be considered beautiful by anyone’s standards, but for me it went beyond that; her scent was intoxicating, her taste was addicting, touching her filled me with the deepest pleasure, looking at her was arousing, even listening to her talk or sing drew my attention like a man possessed—her little giggles and moans, I could listen to them on a loop for days. What we shared was, obviously, beyond normal, but it was due to the fact her body had been sculpted to fit and fill my every desire, down to the most instinctive level—down to my DNA, I was attracted to everything about her, reacting so deeply to her.

  For Eve it was similar, but different in her Predazoan way—even more obsessive, beyond what I could fully understand. She said every cell in her body craved me, desired me, reacted to me; she said I was a shining beacon that drew her in, consumed and hypnotized her even. She told me once there were parts of her inner-consciousness that fought for my attention—an internal struggle as every core cell of her hivemind wanted time and attention from me. That I didn’t really understand, but she told me it would be like how a regular person might war with themselves over conflicting thoughts or opinions, only for a Predazoan it was much more intense—and the war was just over being seen and touched by me.

  It was obsessive and addicting, honestly it was probably unhealthy—dangerous even, but we were too far gone now; all we cared about was each other, and we would do everything to protect and maintain our love.

  With what all we learned from Doctor Kianna, we decided to start being a little more cautious overall; in the safety of our apartment, we were free to dote on each other to a ridiculous degree, but we decided we would mask and hide our relationship around everyone else. We didn’t go out and around The Radiance together much anymore, instead Eve mostly stayed in while I might need to grab some food or supplies for us. If we were due for any duty or the research team summoned us for something, we always tried to remain professional—or at least I did; it would be too obvious if Eve suddenly pulled back considering what all she declared before mission command already, so we would play like Eve was still vying for my affections while I remained distant. I was worried putting on such an act might hurt Eve’s feelings, but she found it rather entertaining, and once we were safely back home she could unleash her rampant affections on me.

  We also decided it would be smart to start gathering a few allies and let them in on our truth; obviously Doctor Kianna was already at the head of that circle, and of course I let Zyno know what was going on—even told him what all Kianna said and how the Empire had us trapped, and while he wasn’t exactly surprised by all those revelations, it still upset him we were forced to sneak around like we were. My best bud as aways, he said he would support us in any way he could.

  From there, we weren’t sure who else to let in on our secret; Doctor Wit seemed to care for us, but he was a member of mission command, so we weren’t really sure if we could trust he would protect us over The Radiance’s benefactors. I felt Doctor Tillia would’ve given us support, but Eve was still a little jealous over the time Tillia and I shared down on Entana, so she said that could wait until we actually needed more support—for now we weren’t in any danger, so there was no reason to spread the secret around too much.

  One sad decision I’d made was to basically end my friendship with Agent Kotlokk; before Entana he and I had a couple earth movie nights together with a few other crew members, and even on Entana he seemed to consider Eve a valuable member of the team, but at the end of the day he was a spy. I wasn’t going to say anything to him, and obviously I would still act friendly, but I didn’t have the necessary guile to risk befriending someone whose job was stealth and espionage; for all I knew he could’ve been one of the crew members that directly reported to whoever was the director of our mission.

  For that matter, who was in charge of our mission? I knew it was all cloak and dagger shit, and they gave us a high security clearance for anything relating to the Predazoan research, but who was actually pulling all the strings? I realized far too late those were questions I should’ve asked before I even signed on with The Radiance, but it was too late now. It wasn’t like I really expected to learn the truth—I was just another cog in the wheel, not even trained for spy-work either. I was a name on a report, the handler to a dangerous asset for the sake of the mission; I might’ve had a position more important than most, but I had no delusions to think I wouldn’t be replaced if I became a liability—disposed of if I became more a hindrance than a help even.

  So from there my daily reports on Eve’s activity were almost wholly fabricated; I mentioned her attempts to seduce or control me as though they were just random errant thoughts—as though she was just a child acting on a whim. I always wrote about my ability to command and even train her; said I was running drills with her to improve her combat capabilities so she wouldn’t seem so unpredictable next time she was in the field—all bullshit obviously. Most of the time Eve helped with the reports, and we came up with nonsense stories about what all we did that day which might seem somewhat productive to the powers that be.

  Really it was scary to think about how trapped the two of us were now—how controlled we really were. We lived aboard The Radiance, couldn’t ever leave, and if we weren’t working productively there was almost nothing we could do to defend against their hold over our lives.

  Still, with as dangerous a situation we found ourselves in, I was happy, and my fears melted away anytime Eve held me, kissed me, loved me. I didn’t think we were actively in danger now, and I knew we had to be careful, but what Eve and I shared was worth any risk.

  I knew I couldn’t live without Eve now, and she felt the same way about me.