The Deadliest Lifeform in the Universe Loves Me-Volume 3: Gamma-12, Chapter 3.11

The Deadliest Lifeform in the Universe Loves Me-Volume 3: Gamma-12, Chapter 3.11

From the room with Luxury, we were escorted through miles of lifts and walkways you would think would take days to get through, but as with all things futuristic, everything moved at outrageous speeds while we were protected from feeling any ill effects. We continued through
Luxury-1
until we finally made it to some massive open docking bay larger than a football stadium back on Earth and filled with a crowd of aliens to match.
“Holy shit, how many people are gonna fit on
Bliss-87
?” I asked no one in particular.
Zyno in front of us pulled out his tablet and sifted through an itinerary hologram, “Looks like it holds up to 12,000 passengers.” He looked off into the crowd, “Seems like it’s just about fully booked too.”
Eve leaned into me, holding my hand with a couple hair tentacles draped around my neck, “Makes you wonder at the technology for how they can move the rooms around so quickly.”
I held my free hand up to make a spinning gesture, “You’d think we’d all end up scrambled if they spun us around too fast, but the hologram lady said people can sleep through it.”
Doctor Yun pulled back a little, “Come on, don’t fall behind.” She scolded gently, leading Zyno forward—playing the girlfriend or just trying to keep him focused, I couldn’t tell. Zyno looked back at me with a nervous expression, but all I could do was shrug.
Same as everywhere in the Empire, the crowd around us was wildly diverse with any random alien I could imagine. One difference here though was everyone looked wealthy—not necessarily rich from what little I could tell, but the people who could afford year-long vacations would obviously be living comfortably. I remember what I was told before about the Tritentarian Empire, how wealthy it was and its citizens prosperous, but that didn’t mean everyone was rich and could live a life of luxury, it just meant people could choose whatever career they might desire.
There were like a hundred separate lines all moving forward at a reasonable pace—robots up front working at maximum efficiency. Eve and I made the slow walk forward, and now that we were around a crowd of fellow passengers we decided we could finally start playing the newlywed couple.
When there was a pause in the line, Eve turned around and leaned up on her tiptoes to give me a kiss, her arms wrapped around my neck as I pulled her against me by the waist.
“So, a
honeymoon
suite.” She said coyly.
“I am
so
glad you said you wanted to go on the trip as newlyweds.”
Eve’s eyes were bright and excited, “I had no idea they would upgrade us like this, I just wanted to be your new blushing bride.”
I leaned down to give her another kiss, and she trilled a little giggle against my lips.
There was a distinct throat-clearing behind us, so we broke apart to see our party had moved a bit ahead without us. I turned behind me, “Sorry about that—newlyweds.” I offered.
The man behind me (at least I think it was a man) was a large, anthropomorphic slug, dark green in color, with high eyestalks on top of his head. The alien seemed quite large and long, about my height including the tall eyestalks, but with a torso/tail that ended a good 10 feet behind him. He had a rather plain, chubby face with chubby little arms, wearing a mostly open jacket that left most of his body exposed. He smiled kindly, “Not to worry my boy, you’ll have all the time in the world to dote on your sweetheart once we board the station.”
The alien might’ve looked like a slimier version of Jabba the Hutt, but he was clearly much kinder.
Eve and I walked forward, and he was quick to keep up despite having no legs, “How long have the two of you been married?” He asked pleasantly.
“Eight cycles.” Eve answered excitedly.
The slug alien’s eyestalks seemed to stretch upward, “My,
very
newlywed. I suppose Glorva Corp upgraded you to the honeymoon suite?”
I nodded, “That’s right; we’re on a company retreat, but now with this free upgrade it seems like it’s going to turn more into a honeymoon.”
“Best honeymoon you could ever ask for.” He gestured behind him, “40 years ago my sweetheart and I honeymooned in the Holistia Nebula, and we loved it so much we return every few years to recharge our passion.”
I looked behind the slug-man expecting to see another slug, instead I found a beautiful bipedal alien following behind him.
“Hello. I’m Nadresh, this is my husband Kurgg.” The beautiful alien announced.
To say I was shocked by the pair would be an understatement; the male was literally a giant, booger-colored slug. The female was a beautiful spring green with elegant facial features with bright blue eyes and dark blue tentacles for hair, with a cute nose and full lips with a great smile. At the top of her forehead just before the tentacles sprouted, she had a crown or crest of horns such a dark blue they were almost black. She didn’t have ears I could see, but her long tentacles veiled the sides of her head. She had a slender body with generous feminine curves, and she was dressed elegantly in a dark blue cyber-summer dress with a futuristic-looking blue jacket. She was a little taller than Eve, putting her face-level with the slug-man before his eyestalks rose a foot above the rest of his head.
Shocked as I was, Eve moved forward to shake the woman’s slender hand, “Pleased to meet you, I’m Eve and this is my husband Adam.” She trilled a little, “Sorry, calling him my husband is still really exciting.”
Kurgg laughed jovially, “Seems like your new husband is shocked seeing a pair like us.” He offered mildly.
“No, uh, it’s just I haven’t been around the Empire long—I mean I
have
, just not around many core worlds, haven’t seen many, um…”
Nadresh giggled and leaned into her husband—almost sitting on his meaty slug body, “It’s alright Adam, really, we’re used to it.” She looked to her husband with fondness, “We know what we must look like, but honestly love is all that matters.”
Kurgg chuckled again, “You should hear the questions people ask us; is she an android, is she a slave, have I brainwashed her—have her mind-controlled?”
Nadresh chuckled too, “My favorite is when people think you must’ve rescued me from slavers, and I had no choice
but
to marry you out of some obligation for a reward.”
Eve leaned forward, eyes dancing with amusement, “If you don’t mind, how
did
you two meet?”
“Well now that
is
a story, but not one to be shared while waiting in line.” Nadresh pulled out her communicator, “Why don’t we exchange contacts, meet up for a lunch sometime soon?”
Eve nodded excitedly, “That would be great!” She cheered, then pulled out her communicator too; fancy futuristic gadgets, they only needed to tap them together to exchange information.
Kurgg nudged me with his chubby elbow, “Assuming you can pull yourself away from your beautiful new bride, eh?” He teased.
Already fitting in with our fellow passengers, we hurried up to return to the rest of our group. The line moved fast enough Eve and I couldn’t get too distracted with PDA again, and once we got up to the front it was just another checkpoint to put our communicators into some locking mechanism, then we were let on through.
“They already checked our communicators at the shuttle bay, why the redundancy?” I asked our group.
“Glorva Corp’s strict security measures, preventing piracy and stowaways for some thousands of years. Once we’re fully cleared and on the station, you’ll see there’ll be no chance of escaping or boarding; once you’re locked in one of their secure rooms, you’re locked in.” Agent Roote answered.
“Which of course significantly limits our available resources and makes the mission all the more difficult.” Agent Uinda added.
We continued onto a lift and after a
third
checkpoint where we had to lock in our communicator
and
the room key, we travelled along some moving walkway into a giant airlock, and then
finally
we boarded
Bliss-87.
I’ve never been on a cruise ship back on Earth, but I’ve seen the pictures; this blew them all away by
miles
. The entryway looked like some grand ballroom, all gold on the walls with holographic art popping off the walls like some Harry Potter living portrait nonsense. We were greeted on all sides by those beautiful golden android girls, these ones looking even more humanoid with actual faces, slender curvy figures, and sleek black uniforms that seemed to be part of their bodies.
Bliss-87
was larger than any cruise ship, holding some 12,000 passengers, and just like with
The Radiance
I never felt cramped as I walked through the halls; all the ceilings appeared 50 feet overhead, with fancy red lighting and crystal chandeliers. Our group continued along the moving walkway through the long,
long
entryway with all our mouths agape, looking
nothing
like some dedicated investigation team.
Zyno pulled up a holographic map of
Bliss-87
from his tablet, and it looked like that classic flying saucer from the hologram, but with a rather large sphere taking up most of the center and middle, “We travel through the entryway to the core of
Bliss-87
, then we can head off to our separate rooms.” He clicked some button and six red points all clustered around each other flashed on the outer rim of the vessel, “We’re all pretty close to each other, they docked our rooms all on the same floor with just a few rooms between us here and there.”
Roote nodded forward, “We’ll do the little welcome tour and then head to our rooms, check our luggage and relax for the day before starting the investigation tomorrow.” He looked around at our group, “I understand this is when it might get strange for some of us—rooming together and behaving like couples—so take the day to talk with your partner and work things out amongst yourselves. We’re in this for the long-haul people; can’t risk messing things up with simple personnel problems.”
Everyone offered their assent rather easily, so I wasn’t sure if Roote had someone in mind that would have difficulties. I knew Zyno was going to be awkward around Yun just because he was nervous, but I also knew he was a good guy and could easily get along with most people, so I was sure he’d be fine once he got more comfortable. Other than that, Doctor Gorgam seemed older and quite serious so I couldn’t imagine him being an issue, although I didn’t know Doctor Sorra very well. Doctor Kianna was great, I actually liked her a lot and found she was easy to talk to, and even though Doctor Densdor seemed a little excentric, I doubted they would clash. Agent Vinnago and Agent Lobae were like the primary actors in all this, so I couldn’t imagine they would have any issues. Then Agent Roote was mission team lead, so he should be well and professional, and I knew Agent Uinda was really nice, so she shouldn’t cause any problems. But honestly, who knew how they would act in private; I had to admit I was a little curious how it would all shake out—coworker drama always entertaining.
As for Eve and myself, we might have the opposite problem of getting
too
into it—indulging in the fantasy so hard we might end up getting scolded for it. But I didn’t even care at this point; we were on a mission posing as a honeymooning couple and I was
desperate
to honeymoon with my Evie.
We’d still take our mission seriously and hunt for Gamma-12, but honestly I would be perfectly fine if we never found her, just Eve and I in our own little world.
Eve gripped my hand a little tighter and wrapped her hair tentacles around my arm, shoulders and neck. She leaned forward to whisper in my ear, “Adam, you seriously need to calm your thoughts down now.”
I looked down at her and quirked up an eyebrow, “What,
why
? I thought you
liked
when I think about you?” I asked, a little hurt.
Eve shook her head, her eyes blazing with passion, “I am so fucking wet for you right now I am fighting
everything
in my core to stop from jumping you right here, right now.”
Oh, well that was a much better problem to have than I thought. I just chuckled and shook my head, “Alright, sorry, I’ll try and distract myself with the scenery until we get to the room.”
Eve nodded once, “That would be for the best.”
We continued on the little tour (Eve still holding onto me rather tightly) and passed through the entryway into what I would call the central plaza. It was a massive, open field of red grass and trees, with a huge beach in the center with blue sand and purple water. The beach was bigger than some big lakes back on Earth, and the surrounding forest or park was 10 times that, with moving walkways and tube lifts placed periodically. There were golden buildings all over the park—full-sized buildings cropped up all over, hundreds of them, some even set up like strip malls. I knew a lot were shops and restaurants, but a lot held activity centers or show venues. Far,
far
out to the ends of the park—beyond what I could barely see—the golden walls started again, with all manner of stairways and doorways leading up and out all over the rest of
Bliss-87
. It was wild how large the vessel was; I’d been astounded how big
The Radiance
was when I first saw it, but
Bliss-87
had it beat several times over.
“Adam, look.” Eve said, pointing straight up.
I looked up above the park several hundred feet in the air, and in the center of the park skyline was a massive viewport taking up most of the ceiling, revealing the Holistia Nebula. The space outside was absolutely beautiful, like a mix of the northern lights on Earth and some bright colorful clouds with the sun directly behind it. Most of the glowing space-gas was purple, but there were accents of blue and red throughout, with a couple glowing sections of every other color imaginable—and some I
couldn’t
even imagine. Everything about
Bliss-87
was outrageously beautiful, with the gold structure, the exotic park/beach-city core, and then this crazy view of the nebula. No wonder it was such a popular vacation sector.
We transferred to another moving walkway and rode on it for a little while, moving faster than should be comfortable, but again whatever sci-fi magic was at work kept us all in place. As it circled around the paradise city, holograms popped up to explain what some of the nearby venues were—restaurants, diners, bars, gymnasiums, arcades, theatres and all manner of alien entertainment from all over the Empire. No one wanted to take the full tour now, so we crossed over onto another pathway with a simple press of a holo-button to transfer us to another track that lead us out towards the rooms.
“What floor again?” Doctor Gorgam asked.
Zyno already had his holo-map out, “47, section 12a.”
“How many floors are there?” Doctor Yun asked.
“80.” Zyno confirmed.
“Surely there can’t be 12,000 rooms docked on the station at once?” I asked.
Zyno shrugged, “I doubt it, most rooms hold multiple people.
Bliss-87
could probably hold way more people than 12,000 if they wanted us crammed in here, but I think that’s the point.”
I nodded along, “They want us relaxed, not crammed in.”
Definitely another difference with how Earth companies handled their business wanting to get as many bodies in as possible; another win for the Empire I would say.
We took another tube lift and made it to our floor, then rode on another walkway to get to section 12a. We parted with our party as we passed by their rooms—finally saying goodbye to a wildly anxious Zyno who acted like he didn’t even want to look at the room with Yun.
Eve and I found our honeymoon suite, opening it with the little iridescent gold keys, and what we saw made us both speechless. Immediately we could see our room was bigger than our teammates—how it fit into the same slot, we didn’t know. Inside it looked like an alien paradise; there was purple, blue and green grass on the ground, with dark ebony wood pathways with gold plating on the side. It opened wider than I thought it would, a huge circular room with high ceilings at least 30 feet tall. There were vines and intricate latticework on the ceilings, with all colored flowers sprouting off the walls so we could barely see what was beyond. Everything was open in the room—except the toilet, that had a little privacy screen off to the corner, but beside that was a huge open shower and a space-age jacuzzi tub. Another section over was a massive TV area with a couch and recliners—like an outdoor movie theatre.. There was a kitchenette and table with our own food synthesizer and auto cooker and everything. In the center of the room was what appeared to be a massive gazebo all draped in transparent red silks, and inside that was a massive round bed even larger than the king-size we had back on
The Radiance.
Over in the corner we had six of those golden female androids who greeted us promptly, told us they were there to serve our every wish, and then went back to sleep in their dock when we dismissed them. There was a sitting area with a holographic fireplace, a little book nook with a digital library of media, there were extra lounge chairs underneath a fucking
tree
that sprouted from the wall and shaded a good portion of the room with red leaves. There were custom lighting and sound for the whole room, temperature and atmosphere control, everything we could ever imagine, and it all looked like it was somehow outside. It was our own Garden of Eden. Towards the far end of the room, it opened up to our own private pool area with golden tiles and silvery-clear water; the whole pool area seemed like its own balcony appearing as though it was hanging
outside
the room, leading into open space. A wide area all around the poolside of the room had the ceiling completely opened to show off the view of the nebula and everything. Off to the side there was a spiraling staircase that led up to an
actual
ebony wood balcony with a great view overlooking the distant scenery; it must’ve all been protected by that vacuum-shielding forcefield, but to me it looked like it all just opened out into space, with just a little lip of the far side of the pool curling up to indicate the outer edge of our room—the invisible border before space. The nebula was visible all over the room and cast a beautiful glow everywhere, acting as perfect mood lighting.
I ran out by the pool, looking off beyond the water to the nebula, seeing where our room ended and space began, “Eve, you’ve gotta see this, this is crazy!” I called excitedly, sounding like a kid.
But Eve didn’t answer. I turned back around, “Eve?” She wasn’t behind me at all.
I walked back into the room and saw she was sitting on the edge of the bed, naked, her glowing yellow eyes hungry—furious passion burning within them.
“Hello, my darling husband, would you like to break in our marital bed?”

.
!
Volume 3: Gamma-12, Chapter 3.11