The moment the mission debrief was dismissed, the atmosphere changed to be that of celebration. Apparently while the ground crews were celebrating on the last day on Entana, The Radiance was still in mission-mode and hadn’t had the chance to let loose yet. Right away Eve and I were swarmed by everyone around us with invites to parties that were happening all over the ship; there was a party in the cafeteria, a party at the duty-free shopping district, a party in the shuttle bay, a party in the arcades and simulators, and a dozen random parties in various people’s quarters.

  To be perfectly honest, I wanted to just head right back to our quarters and fuck the daylights out of Eve—see if I could dominate an Ancient Old One Predazoan, but she had a brilliant smile on her face when she was being treated as the star of the show, and I didn’t want to take that away from her. Eve could be quite shy and clung to me all the time, but I could see she really wanted to be seen as a real person; despite being a Predazoan, she comprised her core of mostly human DNA, and I think she honestly wanted to be more human than not—or at least more like a person rather than some crazy abominable alien, and here was the perfect opportunity for her to explore that.

  Despite being down on Entana with us and partying the night away, Zyno was the first to shove us along towards one of the parties, followed closely behind by a giggling Tillia. We went to the cafeteria first where someone was going crazy with the artificial cookers, synthesizing massive platters of random party food for nearly every race aboard The Radiance. It was hilarious to see how normal all these aliens were—or how partying across the galaxy was all widely the same. There were some drinking games with these targets and laser guns that zapped you when hit, but weirdly seemed to increase your intoxication, so the point was to get your opponent more drunk than you. At first I tried to deny everyone’s offer of drinks and games, wanting to stay sober enough so I could perform later with Eve, but after even she insisted I get involved (Eve always found it funny when I got drunk), I decided to join in the festivities after all.

  Zyno and Tillia stayed with us the entire time, but eventually Doctor Wit and Doctor Kianna found us and decided to stay with our little group too. Survivors of Entana they joked.

  There were plenty of marines that offered Eve a drink, telling her she was a real warrior and had shown such ferocity against Gamma-17 it inspired them to want to train harder for the next time they confronted a Predazoan. Eve accepted the drinks, but since she was immune to all toxins, alcohol did nothing for her—unless it was a tasty kind of drink, like those fruity mixes, in which case she really enjoyed those.

  From the cafeteria, we moved onto the shopping center party; it was all decorated like some street party, almost looking like an alien Mardi gras. The duty-free shops on The Radiance always reminded me of some mix of cruise ship stores and a strip mall. The stores were all cleared of their normal stock as tables, chairs and couches with all manner of alien booze were freely available. It was crazy how many kinds of alien liquor there was, and it was wild how most races could consume just about all of them without worrying about something being toxic, unlike most alien meals. There were some I had to stay away from—lethal to mammalian booze here and there—but for the most part if it was alcohol, it could be tolerated by any race that could tolerate alcohol at all. Sadly, there were a couple that couldn’t; nearly every flora-based species couldn’t consume even a single drop of liquor, always needing to be careful what all liquids they ingested. Still, despite being unable to drink or get drunk, some of those pretty flora girls really knew how to let loose—letting people do body shots off them and everything.

  “Oh oh! I want you to do a body shot off me!” Eve trilled happily.

  I flashed her an eager grin, “Yeah?”

  Eve nodded excitedly, then laid down on the nearby table; she was wearing a more punk outfit with a black tank-top that showed just a hint of midriff and a black sleeveless future-tech zip hoodie, with a short red plaid skirt and some high-heeled black boots that went to the top of her shins, she also had some stripped arm-warmers that looked like some classic human accessories. A little pink blush rose on her cheeks as she lifted her top to reveal her pure white stomach; her skin was tight and impossibly smooth, almost looking more like silk. Eve’s abdomen looked like it just barely had the shadow of muscle before her hips flared out wildly—an insane hourglass figure that shouldn’t be physically possible, but there it was staring up at me; all mine free to touch and explore.

  Tillia rushed over with a bottle, giggling like a party girl, pouring a little trail along Eve’s navel for me. “Woooo! Get it Adam!”

  I leaned down and licked and sucked it all up, trailing my tongue up higher to make sure I got it all. Eve giggled wildly and pulled me up to kiss her, and everyone around us hollered and cheered.

  “Do a cleavage one too!” Tillia pressed.

  Eve smiled and pulled down her tank-top a little and pressed her tits together, and Tillia poured the shot on Eve once more. I licked this one up even more aggressively, grabbing her breasts together and pushing my tongue back and forth between them. Eve laughed again and ran her fingers through my hair, keeping my head between her breasts.

  “I have to say watching a Predzoan have body shots done off her was not something I would’ve guessed to be part of their behavioral pattern.” Doctor Kianna announced, getting a laugh from us all.

  Really though, I was never much of a partier back on earth; I was a dork in high school, then got all artsy-fartsy creative as I got older. I wasn’t even much of a drinker back home, not until I had my mental breakdown and started using booze to cope. But here, these were my people—the science nerds and the weirdo aliens. It was strange how I finally found some place to belong, and all it took was for me to move several galaxies away from earth. It was also the first time I was truly in love; sure, I’d thought I’d been in love back on earth, but it was nothing like what I felt for Eve now. I wanted her, I needed her, I adored her—I was obsessed with her. And the best part of all, I knew she felt the exact same way.

  Our group continued its tour around the parties, heading next to the shuttle bay. This one was a little more subdued, with some couple dozen marines and soldiers sitting around drinking in honor of their fallen comrades. I was about to suggest we move on to not disturb them, but when the marines saw Eve, they called her over, wanting to have a drink with the hero.

  We ended up sitting in a wide circle around a holographic bonfire that somehow radiated heat. The marines took turns swapping stories, talking about other deployments or missions they’ve been on, paying tribute to all their friends who died along the way.

  “So, how exactly did you kill Gamma-17?” A young marine asked. He received a few weak admonishments from his comrades, as though it wasn’t right to ask, but it was clear they were all wildly curious. Actually, for that matter so was I.

  Sitting beside me, Eve trailed her nails along my arm as she thought over the answer, “I guess it was instinct, since none of the Predzoans ever fought before, but I knew once I consumed part of her biomass core, that would kill her.”

  “Is that the one part of your body you can’t regenerate, your core?” I asked, a little concerned.

  Eve shook her head, “No, I can make, remake and unmake my biomass core whenever I want.” She gestured to herself, “Remember how I remade it so it was composed of significantly more human DNA? I had to unmake and remake my core to build it up like that.”

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  “Then why did Gamma-17 die when you bit into hers?” A soldier asked.

  Eve shrugged, “Once I consumed part of her biomass core that was it; I had control over her cellular structure, and from there she completely destabilized.”

  Doctor Wit nodded along, “Exactly like how it is with our destabilizing acid; it might burn away random cells, but once it gets to the core it will completely destroy the Predazoan in a systemic chain reaction.”

  “Basically, when you consume core biomass from another Predazoan you just completely dominate all the cells of their accumulated biomass?” I pressed.

  Eve nodded along, “Different from just damaging her core, when I consume it I take it as part of my biomass, and whatever hivemind consciousness we exist as can’t be split between two Predazoans, so the weaker—the consumed is simply destroyed, unable to keep command over their body of cells.”

  “Considering we did fuck-all with our acid rounds, we’ll probably be relying on you to eat the next Predazoan too.” A marine offered, and there were mutterings of agreement around the holographic fire.

  “After consuming the core biomass, did you feel any different?” Doctor Kianna asked.

  Eve held up her hand and clenched her fist, “A little stronger, like there’s more of me—a lot more.” She lowered her hand to grab mine and interlock our fingers, “But I already achieved perfection, so aside from accumulating more biomass, there won’t be any significant changes to who I am.”

  From there the marines asked Eve all sorts of random questions—have fast she could run, how fast she could fly, how much she could carry, what all she could consume or destroy. It was fun at first, but then they started treating her more like a sideshow attraction and I didn’t really like it and was sure Eve was getting a little uncomfortable. We decided to move on to the next party, heading off towards the simulators.

  Even though I hadn’t had much experience with the simulators, they were absolutely awesome. They weren’t as magical as the Star Trek Holodeck, but they were still really cool. They couldn’t create physical objects you could touch or feel, but they could still create basically any virtual reality environment. Combat sims were common for training, and that was what little experience I had with them so far, but there were all kinds of other entertaining or relaxing sims available. Some people would use the simulators to recreate their home planets if they were homesick, they could see places they always wanted to visit, they could project themselves in any kind of media or even a custom story, and some people would even go together in the sims for group outings or dates to have a much more exciting environment rather than just be stuck in a ship all the time.

  The sim being used now projected an image of an Entana field of blue grass, with fireworks sporadically lighting up the night sky. Eve and I grabbed a bottle of some spicey blue liquor and found a corner all to ourselves. I laid down on the simulated blanket, and Eve put one leg over mine as she rest her head on my chest.

  “It almost feels like we’re celebrating the end of some war, but it was just one successful hunt when we have like 20 left.” I reasoned.

  Eve swatted my shoulder, “19, unless you were planning on hunting me?”

  I chuckled and wrapped my arm around her back, “Obviously not. Either way, seems like you’re pretty safe from here on out—officially a crew member aboard The Radiance.”

  Eve let out a content sigh, “It’s honestly kind of nice, being treated like a normal person.”

  I quirked up an eyebrow, “I thought you didn’t want to be normal?”

  Eve giggled at that, “Darling, we’re both far from normal, but it’s still nice to feel like we belong—nice they see me more as a person now rather than some dangerous science experiment.”

  I was silent for a few beats, not wanting to upset her, but concerned all the same, “Did it ever bother you, how they looked at you—how they treated you?”

  Eve shook her head, “You are the only being in the entire universe whose opinion I care about.”

  I was silent again, and I slowly started trailing my fingers up and down Eve’s back.

  “Adam?”

  “Yeah?”

  Eve paused for a moment, “What do you think about me killing the other Predazoans—consuming Gamma-17’s core?”

  I leaned my head up enough to look at her, and I could see Eve’s eyes were wide and a little worried. “What are you thinking?”

  Eve shrugged against me, then settled back down, “I don’t know, but you’ve asked multiple times if I was okay hunting down my sisters, so now I guess I wonder what all you think of it.”

  “You think I’d find it scary or something?”

  “Maybe…”

  I shook my head, “Eve, even if the Empire classified all Predazoans as dangerous abominations that needed to be destroyed, it wouldn’t change how I feel about you. You’re unique, something more than a Predazoan—more than a human. You have feelings and empathy, you’re caring and sweet, and I don’t know if any of the other Predazoans are like that, but it just doesn't matter to me.” I smiled, “You’re the only being in the universe whose opinion I care about.”

  Eve giggled a little, “I love you Adam.”

  “I love you too Evie, and if anytime you decide you don’t want to hunt down the other Predazoans, you let me know and we can leave all this behind.”

  “Really?”

  I nodded, “Sure, might have to hide or flee from the Empire depending how the exit interview goes, but so long as we’re together, I don’t care where we are or what we do.”

  I could hear the smile in Eve’s voice, “I see what you did there.”

  I chuckled at that, “I might be a little slow sometimes, but I catch up eventually.”

  “Hey, come on lovebirds!” I heard Tillia call. We looked to see her jogging our way with the rest of our party, “We just heard Doctor Gorgam is having an absolute rager in his quarters; apparently he busted out some old booze that’s illegal in 39 systems!”

  I sat up and Eve sat up with me, “Wanna keep the party going?”

  Eve smiled brilliantly, “So long as we’re together.”

  ***

  The rest of the night ended up a complete blur. We headed off towards Doctor Gorgam’s to try his illegal booze, and to say it fucked us up is an understatement. I’ve never had absinthe before back on earth, but from what I heard about what all it could do, this was like some supercharged absinthe with extra alien flair.

  Fights broke out, rooms were raided, people ran around in their underwear; apparently it was so bad there was going to be some disciplinary hearings—and we wouldn’t be able to celebrate like this next time we successfully hunted another Predazoan.

  Whatever all trouble I got into last night, Eve took care of me. I think I puked once and she cleaned me up, having a weirdly fun time being the caregiver to her drunk idiot human. She got me out of my clothes and we got into pajamas and headed off to bed together. She put on some earth TV show in the background while she laid my head in her lap and stroked my hair, trilling in that musical way of hers as she held me close while the room spun around me.

  “I’m sorry Evie…” I slurred.

  “Hm?”

  “You probably wanted to have more fun out with our friends.”

  Eve giggled to herself, “Adam, everyone else has long since partied out; there’s no one left at this point. All of The Radiance is going to have to deal with a massive hangover come tomorrow.”

  “I know, but I’m sorry I got all fucked up, I know you enjoyed being around friends that treated us like normal.”

  Eve cocked her head to the side, “What do you mean?”

  I hugged deeper into Eve’s lap, “You know, the people who treat you like a person; I saw how you were smiling back after the mission briefing. Figured you just wanted to be around people like that for a change.”

  Eve quirked up an eyebrow, “You thought I wanted to be around those people because they were treating me like a person now?”

  I rolled over to look up at her face and I saw she was well beyond amused, “Well, uh, yeah?”

  Eve rolled her eyes, “Oh my dumb darling boy, I only went out to those parties because that’s what I thought you wanted.”

  I finally rolled all the way around so I was looking straight up at Eve from her lap—her massive breasts blocking a significant view of her beautiful face, “Wait, what do you mean? You didn’t enjoy the parties?”

  Eve shrugged, “They were fun and all, and it’s always hilarious when you get drunk, but I only enjoyed myself because you were there with me.” She smiled mischievously, “I was hoping we could’ve spent some private time together—I would’ve found that much more enjoyable.”

  I groaned and put a hand over my face, “Oh, I’m such a fucking idiot.”

  Eve giggled again, “No, you’re just cute is all—adorable you thought I wanted to spend time with all those random people.”

  I moved my hand away, “Promise you’re not mad?”

  Eve’s smile was still playful, “Depends, what would you have rather done?”

  I reached up and hugged her thighs and ass, “Definitely would’ve had more fun here with you.”

  Eve chuckled low in her throat, “Good boy.”

  “Honestly though I’m surprised you aren’t mad—or at least trying to get at me now while I’m all vulnerable.”

  Eve giggled again, trailing her nails along my hair, my neck and my chest, “Darling, what’s the rush? The Radiance is going on light-duty for the next cycle while mission command decides our next target.”

  “You mean—”

  Eve silenced me by leaning down and giving me a slow, tender kiss with just a little teasing tongue. She pulled back with an eager, hungry look in her eyes, “We have all the time in the world.”