Page 15 of Aliens Snared My Heart (Awakened Womb #3)

15 / Paz

I couldn't believe my eyes. I blinked multiple times to make sure my mind wasn’t playing tricks on me, but the figure remained unchanged.

I didn’t know who or what was inside of that outfit, but the person sneaking around in the village wore an outdated model of the space-faring hazmat suit.

I wanted to tell Kur’tok ASAP, but we were both deadly silent. Nobody dared to speak in case the wanderer heard us. They didn’t seem to realize they were being watched.

Slowly, I lifted my gaze to meet Kur’tok’s. He was utterly wide-eyed with shock. I’d never seen him look so stunned. Did he recognize that person?

The figure slunk around, digging in the ashes to retrieve something, then ran. They kept low to the ground as they fled the scene like a cautious prey animal. We watched them disappear into a shallow cavern nearby.

“Okay, we both saw that, right?” I asked.

Kur’tok sounded like he’d just seen a ghost. “That was Assistant 23.”

“What?” I blurted, leaping to my feet. “Well, let’s go talk to him!”

Kur’tok looked hesitant for a second. Then he shook it off and rose to join me. “Fine.”

He sounded warily intrigued, but not thrilled. He hadn’t talked much about the second member of the investigation, so I figured Kur’tok hadn’t been as close to Assistant 23.

But based on the distant figure’s shape and movements, I had suspicions about what he was...

As we approached the cavern, Kur’tok glanced at the sky. It was getting dark.

“I said we’d return by evening,” he reminded me quietly.

“We can’t pass up this opportunity,” I insisted. “If we go back now, who knows where Assistant 23 will disappear to?”

Kur’tok growled softly. He wrapped his tentacles around my waist and picked me up bridal-style.

“I can walk, you know,” I teased.

“I don’t know how much he’s changed in eight cycles,” Kur’tok said in a low voice. “If he tries to harm you...”

I smiled at his overprotective machismo. “It’ll be fine. He looked scared.”

Kur’tok’s expression remained stoic. “People who are afraid lash out,” he mumbled, as if speaking from experience.

“Okay. Then I trust my big, strong, sexy filum to keep me safe. How about that?”

A smirk curved the edge of Kur’tok’s mouth. “Better.”

Kur’tok took steady strides towards the cavern. I had to admit, I did feel safe in his tentacled grip. Whatever happened, he’d protect me.

Before Kur’tok stepped foot inside, a terrified shriek rang out: “W-who’s there?”

I exchanged glances with Kur’tok. Whoever that voice belonged to sounded like a trembling Chihuahua of a person. I doubted we were in any danger at all.

“Let me handle this,” I whispered to Kur’tok, then called back, “Hello there! My name is Paz, and I’m—”

Another comically terrified shriek followed.

“It’s all right. We’re not going to hurt you,” I assured in my best professional diplomatic voice.

“Don’t make promises like that,” Kur’tok grumbled.

“Oh, shush.”

“There’s two of you?” Assistant 23 yelped. If his voice pitched any higher in fear, he’d shatter his own face screen.

“Yes. One human and one Maeleon. We just want to talk,” I assured him. “May we come inside?”

“No,” Assistant 23 said quickly. “I... I’ll come out.”

The seconds stretched by as Assistant 23 ducked out of the cavern. Seeing the hazmat suit was a blast from the past—I’d worn one myself during training sessions a long time ago—but his was dusty and ragged from constant use. A tinted shield hid Assistant 23’s face.

Kur’tok stiffened.

Assistant 23 gasped as if having a revelation. He was so shocked that he fell on his ass. “Kur’tok? Is that you?” he stammered.

Kur’tok didn’t speak. He must’ve felt a lot of wild emotions. I put my hand on his chest to reassure him I’d take care of it.

“Yes, this is Kur’tok,” I said. “And I’m Paz.”

Assistant 23 was dead still. Then he groaned and passed out.

“Um,” I said, blinking at his unconscious form. “Okay. Didn’t expect that reaction.”

Still holding me in his tentacles, Kur’tok turned around to leave.

“Hey!” I scolded. “Come on, we can’t leave him like that.”

Kur’tok sighed and allowed me to leap out of his grip. I ran over to the unconscious body of Assistant 23. I was hesitant to touch the suit. It was so old, it felt like it might crumble under any touch.

My heart raced as I felt Assistant 23’s real body beneath the suit.

I knew it. He’s definitely human, I thought with a twist in my gut. Kur’tok described their suits as flesh. Does he not know?

I grunted with effort as I tried to lift Assistant 23 to no avail. “Little help here? I’m a talker, not a lifter.”

Kur’tok grumbled as he grabbed Assistant 23 by the scruff and lifted him easily. “You could stand to do less talking...”

“Be careful. That thing’s old,” I said, pointing at the suit.

“Isn’t he around your age?”

“Never mind. Let’s just get back home.”

Kur’tok’s tail twitched happily. He didn’t seem to care what kind of trouble we got into as long as we did it together.

To my surprise, Haz’rull and Arr’tow recognized the unconscious form of Assistant 23. They kept their distance—like Kur’tok, they also seemed spooked, as if he’d risen from the dead—but were curious.

“How has he survived for so long?” Arr’tow asked incredulously.

“We saw him digging around in the old village ruins,” I explained. “I wonder if there’s still food there.”

The two smaller Maeleons perked up.

“You saw the village, then?” Haz’rull ventured.

Kur’tok turned his head away. His guilt had a tangible aura. I put my hand comfortingly on his arm.

“Yeah,” I said. “He told me everything.”

Haz’rull smirked knowingly at Kur’tok. “And yet, Paz remains by your side. I told you he would.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Kur’tok grumbled, his feelers flashing with rings of pink. “Can we deal with this in the morning? I’m exhausted, and I want to be with Paz.”

“You’ve been with me all day,” I reminded him.

He grunted through a fond look. “I never get enough of you.”

My chest squeezed. He was so freaking sweet, and he didn’t have a clue.

I knew the village would accept him back. All he had to do was realize he was worth accepting.

Haz’rull and Arr’tow promised to watch Assistant 23 overnight, so I followed Kur’tok to bed. The second I lay down, exhaustion hit me like a truck. My eyelids drooped as I snuggled closer to Kur’tok.

“You’ll think about it, won’t you?” I mumbled through a yawn.

“About what?”

“Rejoining the village.”

Kur’tok tensed. He huffed, burying his nose in my hair. “Maybe.”

‘Maybe’ wasn’t ‘no.’

I smiled. “Okay. G’night.”

“Goodnight, my beloved flesh-bag.”

I woke to a shriek that pierced the peaceful silence.

Kur’tok bolted awake, alarmed and ready to punch anyone who stepped foot into the den. But his anger fizzled when he remembered who the shrill sound belonged to. Scowling, he rose to his feet and pulled me up to mine.

“Let’s go, diplomacy freak,” Kur’tok grumbled.

I sighed, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. “Conflict resolution this early in the morning? Can’t I at least get a kiss first?”

Kur’tok swiftly planted a kiss on my lips, then dragged me outside.

The scene almost made me want to crawl back into bed. Assistant 23 was curled up like a pillbug, trembling on the ground. Arr’tow and Haz’rull stood over him, confused at why he kept making that high-pitched keening sound, and why he was shaking like a leaf.

“All we did was say hello,” Arr’tow pointed out.

“Lemme talk to him,” I said. Kneeling by Assistant 23, I examined his face shield up close. It was too dark and reflective to see his real face. “Hey! Remember me?”

“No!” Assistant 23 cried. “But I remember everyone else!”

“Well, that’s good. No long-term memory problems, at least.”

“You’re all gonna kill me!” Assistant 23 cried.

“Relax. Nobody’s going to—”

Assistant 23 groaned, dramatic and loud, smothering anything I had to say. “It’s all my fault! I should’ve stopped him! Why didn’t I? Stupid, stupid!”

He slapped himself in the face shield with ratty hazmat gloves.

“Dude, cut it out,” I said, prying his hands away from his face. Geez, this guy was more melodramatic than Levi. “You’re fine. No one’s going to kill you. And will you stop it with the self-deprecating crap? You’re as bad as Kur’tok.”

“Excuse me?” Kur’tok grumbled.

Assistant 23 stilled when he heard Kur’tok’s voice. It was hard to tell exactly with the tinted face shield, but he seemed to stare right at the big red Maeleon. Suddenly, he burst into tears.

“Kur’tok, I’m so sorry!” Assistant 23 wailed, slumping miserably on the ground like a slug. “I should’ve stopped Unit 44, but he kept pulling rank on me, saying I was just a dumb intern and I should shut my mouth and let him take care of everything. Then he messed up your brain and made you do that and—oh, god!”

The three Maeleons and I stood there awkwardly as Assistant 23 crumbled into a sobbing mess. I felt bad for him, but my instincts said he just needed to get it all out. How many years of guilt festered inside him?

Speaking of festering guilt, I turned to Kur’tok to see his reaction. He must’ve felt a lot of complicated emotions. He looked slightly less annoyed at Assistant 23, but didn’t warm up to him, either.

“Stand up,” Kur’tok said gruffly.

Assistant 23 sniffled. He woozily got to his feet. He was taller than me—which wasn’t saying much—and looked skinny beneath the baggy suit. That wasn’t a surprise. Unlike me and my crew, he didn’t live with Maeleons, and therefore had no help to survive. How had he sustained himself all this time?

“Stop crying,” Kur’tok snapped.

Assistant 23’s wail cut short. He sniffled again.

Kur’tok took a moment to gather his words. It was a stark difference to when I first met him and he’d blurted out anything and everything without a filter.

“What you just said. Is it true?” Kur’tok finally asked. “About wanting to stop Unit 44?”

Assistant 23 sobered up. “Y-yes. Every word. Please believe me, Kur’tok, I never wanted that to happen to you...”

Kur’tok flexed and unflexed his fists. I stroked his arm, reminding him I was there. He wasn’t facing this alone.

“Paz was right, then,” Kur’tok mumbled. “Unit 44 did use me.”

Hearing him finally realize the truth broke my heart. I hugged him tightly. “I’m so sorry, Kur’tok.”

Haz’rull and Arr’tow hesitated, then approached him. Their feelers floated over to touch Kur’tok’s shoulders. They wordlessly shared their sympathy and understanding through their feeler-connection.

Kur’tok shivered, as if feeling things he hadn’t felt for a long time. “Thanks,” he muttered. When we eventually withdrew, he shook off the frazzled emotions. “Tell me, Assistant 23. How are you even alive?”

Assistant 23 squeaked like a trapped mouse. “Why? Are you going to kill me?”

“Not unless you keep annoying me,” Kur’tok griped.

“He’s joking,” I clarified, patting him on the chest. “He looks big and scary, but on the inside, he’s a sweetie pie.”

He shot me a grumpy look.

“R-right,” Assistant 23 said. “Well, after it all went down, I got scared and ran away. I expected the villagers to find and kill me next, since I was technically complicit with Unit 44... but they never did. So I hid. And ate whatever weird plants I could find.” He shuffled inside the hazmat suit, as if embarrassed. “Some of them had, er, extremely odd side effects...”

I cackled. “Oh, no. You ate the aphrodisiac fruit, didn’t you?”

“How did you know that?” Assistant 23 blurted.

I grinned. “I’ve eaten it before, too. It’s good stuff.” I wagged my eyebrows at Kur’tok. “Though it’s probably more fun with a partner.”

Kur’tok frowned. He must’ve been annoyed that he wasn’t there when I ate the horny fruit.

“And for that matter,” Assistant 23 went on, voice trembling, “how is there another human here?”

The question stopped me—and Kur’tok.

“What did you just say?” Kur’tok asked in a low voice.

“So, I was right,” I said, nodding slowly. “Beneath the suit, you are human.”

Kur’tok’s tail went rigid. “You knew?”

“Not for certain, but I was pretty sure.”

Kur’tok glanced down. His feelers flashed with jarring mismatched colors, pulsing with uneasiness and confusion. “Then... you’re not the first human I’ve met.”

“No,” I agreed. “Unit 44 and Assistant 23 were.”

The sound of Unit 44’s name made Kur’tok shudder. He stared at his palms, then clenched his eyes shut.

I could tell he needed a minute. I took his silence as an opportunity to keep talking with Assistant 23.

“My ship crash landed here half a year ago,” I explained. “But it was weird. Eukaria didn’t show up on our navigation system. We only saw it with our bare eyes when the systems shut down. For all intents and purposes, Eukaria didn’t exist.” I tapped the translation device in my ear. “But when we spoke to the Maeleons, our ITMs functioned perfectly.”

Assistant 23 fidgeted with his hands. “Um... that’s because of me.”

My brows raised. “Huh?”

“Our mission was top secret. Even back then, nobody knew about Eukaria except a couple high-ranking officers. I was just an intern, but I wasn’t totally useless, no matter what Unit 44 told me...” He cleared his throat. “I’m a linguist. My job was to learn the local language and add it to the ITM database, which I succeeded at.”

“Whoa! That’s really cool, man,” I said.

“Um... thanks. But that’s not all I can do.” He looked around nervously, then spoke in a whisper. “I’m also a hacker.”

“What?”

He rubbed the back of his head. “It’s been my hobby since I was young, so I brought my tools with me. It wasn’t really, uh, public knowledge. Anyway, it had nothing to do with our mission. But when everything went horribly wrong...” He paused. “I knew I had to stop anybody else from coming here. So, I deleted Eukaria from the space-faring map database.”

“You can do that?” I blurted.

For the first time since I’d met Assistant 23, he seemed a little proud of himself. “Not just anyone. But I can. Anyway, I didn’t bother deleting all my hard work on the language module, since I figured nobody would find Eukaria in the first place.”

“Wow! You’re amazing, dude!”

“N-not really.”

“Yeah, you are.”

“No, I—”

“Enough of all this nonsense talk,” Kur’tok growled, addressing the meek man. “If you’re also a puny human like Paz, how have you survived all this time?”

Assistant 23 rubbed his suit-covered arm. “Well, um... Years ago, I noticed that the old community vegetable garden had come back to life.”

Kur’tok’s eyes widened. “What?”

“The ashes must’ve protected the baby plants from scavengers. Since then, they’ve grown strong and tall. I’ve been taking one or two veggies a day from the new ones.”

Kur’tok shook his head. “I didn’t even see them.”

“You were too far away,” Assistant 23 pointed out sheepishly. “If you went into the village proper, you would’ve noticed, too.”

Emotions swam across Kur’tok’s face. This was a lot to take in all at once. I could only hope that it swayed his perspective for the better.

“I wish to see them,” Kur’tok said quietly. “Will you come with me, Paz?”

I smiled. “You didn’t even have to ask.”

We returned to his old village. Arr’tow, Haz’rull, and Assistant 23 came with us. The other Maeleons hadn’t been here since the incident, either; I figured this was emotional for everybody involved.

Kur’tok wandered through the village as if in a dream. He seemed hesitant to touch anything, or even exist in the space. While he got his bearings, I quickly found one of the old vegetable gardens. I gasped.

“Kur’tok, look!” I cried.

My voice shook him from his trance. He rushed to my side. “What?” He sucked in a breath. “Oh.”

He saw the same thing I did—fresh green stalks with ripe vegetables dangling from the stems. The plants rose triumphantly into the air, almost as if to say, “We’re alive!”

Kur’tok’s eyes flashed. He slowly sank to his knees. His shaky hands reached out to caress the leaves tenderly, like greeting an old friend.

He didn’t speak for a long while. As I waited, I noticed the breeze tickling my face and the sun warming my skin. It was a beautiful day. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It smelled like spring. Green leaves, unfurled flower petals, ripe vegetables and fruits.

A pleasant shiver ran across my skin. Had the environment always smelled so nice? It almost felt like something within me had changed...

“Paz,” Kur’tok said.

I drifted back to reality. I glanced at my mate.

“Yeah?” I asked.

His red eyes wavered, but his voice was reinforced with finality. “I’m ready to return.”