BONUS: Alien Girlfriend Deleted Scenes - 22: Dreams

Hello! This is a bonus scene I wanted to share with patrons! This is a "deleted scene" chapter that was originally going to be set in between Bill's evening with Rachel and John and the ship getting attacked the next day.

That part of the story was already getting complaints about slowing down and I ditched this and the next chapter in favor of getting things moving again. It has a little bit about the link in it, and I decided I didn't want to info dump so early.

Note that this has some stuff about the link in it, but since it's not part of the published work I can and probably will change some of it when I get around to addressing the link more in the main story.

Hope you like it!

She stood there for a long moment staring at me. I stared right back at her. My eyes ran up and down again.

I know it wasn't a good idea to get distracted by the sexy when I was in the middle of something that might literally be a life or death situation.

I mean, sure, I didn't think she was actually standing there with me in the damn room. This had to be some sort of mental connection. Most likely it was me losing my mind, and I was telling myself it was a mental connection because that was better than admitting I was going crazy.

But who's to say it wasn't real even if it was in a dream? What if she suddenly sprouted knives on her fingers and decided to give me the old slice and dice like that burned-up dude who went after Captain Jack Sparrow?

The ancient original Captain Jack Sparrow, not the ones from the many remakes over the centuries.

Finally she seemed to deflate. She stared at me for another long moment.

"I can't believe this is happening," she finally said.

"Um, could you tell me what exactly is happening?"

Instead she stared at me for another long moment. These long lingering stares were starting to make me think she was interested in me. That and she was appearing in my dreams like this which didn’t seem like the kind of thing someone would do if they weren’t interested.

"My brother isn't something you need to worry about."

"Are you sure about that?" I asked, feeling along the wall.

Unfortunately I didn't have anything fancy like a weapons alcove in the side of my wall. Partially because that seemed like the kind of over-the-top paranoia that even I didn't want to mess with. But mostly because this was a spaceship, and space was at a premium. Even on a mobile barracks where people marked time waiting for retirement or getting drummed out of the service.

Which meant all the walls had a bunch of wiring and other important stuff running through them. If I tried to cut into it then there was a good chance I’d run into a plasma conduit or an isolinear chip or something like that and electrocute my ass.

Or, even worse, I’d do enough damage that some of that plasma crystallized and suddenly I’d have weird foam rock shit sparking and raining down from the ceiling onto my ass, which I really could've done without.

Point was, I didn't have a weapon near at hand. I didn't think any weapon was going to do me a damn bit of good trying to fight her off anyway.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

“Feeling for a weapon," I said, figuring honesty was the best policy if there was a livisk woman living in my head where she could presumably already read my thoughts.

Talk about the ultimate lie detector.

Oddly enough, the corner of her mouth quirked up in the ghost of a smile.

“I like that even when you're confronted with a situation beyond your human understanding, your first instinct is to go for a weapon. I think that's why you impressed me to the point you were chosen in the first place.”

"So we're not talking about your dead brother anymore?" I asked.

I wanted to know what impressing her had to do with anything, but at the same time I wanted to make sure everything was squared away with the dead brother situation. I didn't know a lot of people who could lose a family member like that and be totally okay with the idea of hanging around with the person who did the killing.

"My brother was an idiot," she said. “He was only interested in climbing the imperial ladder. He wasn't interested in anything with our family, but I could use that. He was a means to an end. A tool to be discarded when it broke, and you broke that tool.”

“So you weren't exactly fond of the guy, but he was the only one who could stick his cock inside your empress. You were hoping maybe you’d have somebody in your family who was in the line to the throne?”

“It was doubtful he would be chosen to create an heir with the empress, but there was always the possibility. Either way, being a prince consort gave us some level of honor with the imperial family, even if most of that got thrown away when he got himself killed in the course of something as minor as trying to reclaim a wayward colony world.”

"Reclaiming a wayward colony world?" I said with a snort.

"Is there something wrong with phrasing something as it is?" she asked.

"Oh, not at all," I said. "It's just that the propaganda assholes at the CCF News Network would have a field day with a turn of phrase like that."

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said.

"Anyway," I said, "You were talking about doing some choosing? Is this like a Pokemon thing or something?”

The ghost of a frown played across her face. I got the feeling it was a frown that didn't mean anything good for yours truly.

“What is a Pokemon? That’s not a word I’m aware of in Galactic Standard.”

“Never mind,” I said. “I’m just curious what you mean by choosing me.”

“I refer to the initial stages of the link,” she said. “Which can happen in single combat with one of you humans if you’re impressive enough.”

I licked my lips. My mouth had suddenly gone dry at her words. It was a possibility she was talking like because it was an echo of the stuff I'd heard from various humans who talked about bonding with the Livisk. For all that I hadn't talked to anyone directly who’d done that.

Which I figured was a bad sign. That meant not-good things happened to those people. I thought about the poor bastards who ended up going crazy and stealing a ship so they could go off into the cosmos in search of the livisk living in their brain.

I looked her up and down. She hit me with a curious look of her own.

"You keep looking at me. Why is that?"

“I mean, I'm already going crazy and I'm probably going to die or get sent to the funny farm where I get to make some macaroni pictures of my own. So, why not enjoy the view while I can?” I said with a shrug. "You look hot in that. And I'm not just saying that because I've been out here in the Oort cloud for Shatner knows how long tracking a bunch of bullshit."

"You think your duty is bullshit?"

"Don't tell me you've never been on a bullshit duty before," I said.

This time the smile wasn't just the corner of her mouth quirking up. This time she threw her head back and laughed.

"I've been on many duties that are bullshit, even though I don't know what this bullshit is."

"Then how can you know that bullshit is a bad thing?" I asked.

"Something about your tone and the way you feel when you say it."

I blinked. Something about the way I felt when I said that. Now there was a worry. I realized I'd felt a spike of amusement coming from her even before I'd seen her throw her head back and laugh. Nothing like that had ever happened before when I closed my eyes and she was waiting for me.

"Why do I get the feeling all of this is real?"

"Because it is real, of course," she said.

"But it's just happening in my head," I said.

"Isn't everything that happens in the universe happening in your head when you think about it?"

“That seems like a remarkably solipsistic way of phrasing things, but I guess that's correct from a certain point of view.”

The CCF were a big fan of being correct from a certain point of view. They'd taken old Ben's maxim and turned it into a way of life. Usually when they were screwing over people who’d sworn to protect and defend Terran territory via a private military contract.

“This might be happening in your head, and it's also real," she said.

She stood and made her way across the room. I noted the way her hips swayed. Definitely one of those things that was the same whether we were talking about humans or livisk doing it.

It was seductive. She had my full attention. So much so that I didn't even realize she was standing right over me until I was staring up at her and her blue sparkling exposed skin and realizing that, shit, I'd allowed her to sneak up on me again.

Though this time around it wasn't quite as boneheaded as when I'd approached her in single combat under the assumption the lights were out only to have her forcefully disabuse me of that notion.

She reached down and put her hand on my chin. Lifted it up. I was surprised to feel her touch. I didn't think I should be able to feel her touch if this was all a dream. Or especially if this was all a dream, bitch.

"You are interesting, human," she said. "I'm starting to see why some of the Dishonored who find themselves paired with humans are willing to go to such great lengths to connect with you again, and not just because they want to avoid the madness."

Weird. She was saying stuff that was remarkably in line with some of the crazy bullshit I'd heard from humans talking about a mental connection with the livisk. Though she called it the link, which was as good a word as any.

I wondered if that was a translation convention because this was happening in my head, or if she was really talking in the Galactic Standard most races used to try and talk to each other.

There were some languages that were just impossible to vocalize between species. There was one species that bore a passing resemblance to insects on earth. A case of convergent evolution rather than them actually being anything related to insects on earth. They came from a totally different genetic family, which made sense considering they evolved on a totally different planet.

The point was, their language was mostly a bunch of chittering and clicks. There were a couple of intrepid linguists who’d managed to figure it out, but only so they could plug everything into the translator and have a common frame of reference so nobody else would have to learn how to do things with their mouths that you usually had to pay extra for in the seedier parts of the borderlands.

"You're very interesting human," she said, staring down at me.

"You're pretty interesting yourself," I said, looking at the way her cleavage spilled out as she moved close to me.

Which was normally the kind of thing I’d try to avoid. You had to be a gentleman and keep your glimpses to a minimum. No staring and being a creep.

I also had no idea if that was the sort of thing livisk didn't care for. Not to mention she seemed to be interested in what I was putting out there into the galaxy. Which made sense. She was in my head because of this whole link thing, after all. Which seemed to imply she was going to be interested in what I was putting out there into the galaxy.

"I'm going to enjoy finding you and learning exactly what it is that makes you the way you are," she said. "Most humans aren't so… free with their tongue."

"I'll be free with my tongue whenever you want me to be," I said.

I could’ve kicked myself for saying it even as I said it. That was the kind of thing I might say if I was having some fun with a girl I'd been dating for a while. Not exactly first date material.

Though this didn't exactly count as a first date. More like a first mental break we were having together.

She turned and made her way back across the room, and she seemed to be fading away as she made her way across. She also had some sway in her step that was worth watching, if you catch my drift.

"I'll be very interested in getting to see you, my human," she said, looking over her shoulder and smiling as she gave a little bit of extra sway to her athletic, blue, sparkling ass.

Not that I could see her athletic, blue, sparkling ass under the material, but I knew it was there waiting for me.

Or at least in my mind it was. The jury was still out as to whether or not she was actually here, after all, or if this was just my mind finally taking a complete break from reality because of everything John told me tonight.

"Will I see you again?" I asked.

"Oh, you will," she said, that smile turning downright predatory as she licked her lips and looked me up and down. "Like I said, you're fascinating, and I have to stave off the madness, of course. So you'll be seeing me soon. Very soon."

With that, she turned and faded entirely. I sat there in my quarters wondering what in the name of Shatner's toupee had just happened here.