Alien Girlfriend

By V. Pinder

What do you when your body’s been stolen and you’re not stuck as a teenager about to marry?
You run, right? That’s my plan anyhow. Run and run fast.
So when the human space ship crew visits this backward planet, I make my move.
But to get away I’m going to have to borrow someone else’s body for a while. Unlike the girl who took mine, this is totally temporary. I’ll give it back once I find her and get my life back.
The human woman would get her life back eventually and we all go our separate ways.
Nothing else could go wrong with my life, right?
But it did. And on the way I am starting to like the human commander, but we’re totally from different planets and I met him when I’m wearing someone else’s skin and life.
Get it now.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Victoria Pinder
• Release date: Feb 26, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463140819

V. Pinder

Victoria Pinder also writing under Greta Buckle grew up in Irish Catholic Boston before moving to the Miami sun. She’s worked in engineering, then became a lawyer. After realizing she hates clients, she became a high school teacher. Teaching is fun, but writing is a passion. She wrote one hundred and one fan fiction stories online before deciding to transition into writing her own stories. Never ask her to republish her fan stories from age eleven- horribly written stories of princesses. Victoria dreams of writing professionally, where her barista can make her coffee and a walk on the beach, can motivate her tales. Theseus story came to her when she was a freshman in high school as her English teacher, the nun, told her how life was hard and tragedy teaches lessons. The sci fi stories come from years of Star Trek and Star Wars fandom. Victoria’s love of writing has kept her centered and focused. How is she crazy? The voices in her head are characters in novels and she’s not insane.

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1

Ariel

Sheraton Home World

I’m going to have to steal someone else’s body to get out of here.

Ariel, are you listening?

Ariel Transcender stared dumbfounded at the mother superior of her prison, a/k/a Aulnale School for Orphans. Yes, mistress.

She had no idea what had happened, though she pasted a fake simpering smile of appreciation on her face.

Ms. Rochelle walked away.

A few minutes later, Ariel looked out the window again, tuning out Rochelle’s mind-numbing lecture on what was proper behavior when near a man. The boarding home on this planet gave the stupidest lectures of the galaxy. Her lips curled into a sneer. Women were not excited to be bound to men.

Could I do this to someone else? Do I have any other choice?

Lenchena, the teenage girl who’d stolen her adult body and taken off on Ariel’s ship, needed to be found. And Ariel refused to listen to the daily drivel about always listening to a man.

No longer on her planet, Grinocx, she did her best to understand this planet’s culture. Order made sense, but the Sheratons never made sense. Her gaze wandered to the well-manicured lawn designed for ostentatious parties. Not paying attention, Ariel’s mind still picked up a few phrases in the lecture, please a man, be agreeable, and do whatever is asked with a smile, floated in the air.

Rochelle’s voice became animated as she told them, Ferula can be used on your future husband to ensure he finds completion even if you are too tired to perform your duties. However, with your husband, do this sparingly or else he’ll find you a lazy wife.

Ariel blinked after that statement. Another grueling lecture on pointless marriage and sex. Blah, blah, blah. Her people, Grinders, didn’t believe in love and mated only to reproduce. Being stuck on Sheraton where the women dressed in long dresses, caring for homes with neatly cut green grass, and doing nothing more exciting than watching the pink dawns, while the men held careers in outer space, had never been her plan.

Was she really sitting in a lecture on how to please the male species? She rolled her eyes. Seriously? No, she refused to listen to this nonsense. The words ‘ladies never say no’ reverberated behind her back and made her face pucker.

Ariel schooled her features, pretending to listen to the school master, Ms. Rochelle. The woman had no heart. No one had listened to Ariel when she had cried for days and days that some young teenager had switched bodies with her, trapping her in this alien hell. Rochelle had dragged her back to school, and kept her under lock and key.

Hope became fleeting after that, while the years ticked past. For the past four years, she’d been training at the all-girls school for orphans on how to be a proper maid and housewife.

The twenty-five years of her life training to be an engineer, then serving on the starship Tygra, then the sistership Thrycer, had been stolen.

Now that this body was almost of marriageable age, Ms. Rochelle, cursed schoolteacher, paraded Ariel out of the orphanage to find her a match. Every week or special event needing service, Ariel had on the job training with heavy supervision, pointing out Ariel’s light pink hair and ability to be a serviceable wife to a workingman. Pink hair girls are sweethearts. Yeah right. That lowlife bottom-feeding insect, Lenchena, had stolen her body and her life.

Ariel had stopped complaining years ago because it got her nowhere. She was on her own and needed to find a way out of this body and back to her ship. With the almost age of marriage upon her, it was now or never. Then Ariel was going to find that little twit who stole her body and make her pay for stranding her on this backward planet.

In a few weeks Ariel will be leaving us. Heading toward marriage with Massimo? Ms. Rochelle’s voice pulled her back into the lecture.

Err . . . Massimo, with his hovercraft, became convenient transportation to leave the school with permission, but marriage? The boy dreamed of owning a restaurant with a pretty wife. She’d find a way off the planet, when she wasn’t being observed or offered for marriage to every low level non-space going man on this planet. Time ticked fast now.

Ariel is lucky to have found a man so interested in her beauty, he can overlook her status.

Ariel’s mouth tightened and she lowered her head to hide her scowl. No. Massimo was a child, too. Getting her body back from the child thief, Lenchena, mattered far more. This body was now strong. Away from the ever-watchful teacher, she’d have her chance for escape at one of the upcoming diplomatic events where she’d be a maid or serve others dinner. Plus, Sheratons mated for life, something Ariel refused to believe in. But in order not to draw attention to herself, she played along. Um, yes. I am.

A group of male soldiers marched past the closed door of the school room. The females in the class twisted around to catch a glimpse of them. Ariel didn’t join her classmates in staring and drooling at the opposite sex.

Pathetic.

Why did these aliens keep males and females separate until marriage? The customs of this world never ceased to amaze her. The teacher taught the virgin teenagers to expect women to fall into orgasm whenever a man’s hand grazed her body. Seriously? Had they never had sex before? In her memory, sex hadn’t been that all-encompassing.

For the past four years she’d been stuck in this body, living through alien teenage hormones. The sexually denied tightness irritated her body, and her mind longed to be back working on a single engine design. On the Thrycer, she’d run a top design engine room, winning numerous awards for ingenuity on a space ship. Then she’d joined the boarding party to Sheraton, being told the planet was a relaxing and safe tranquil spa. Lies.

If Ariel let them, these alien hormones would dull her reaction time in the girl’s leftover body that held her consciousness. She’d managed to keep slim and fit with exercise as she bided her time until she found a way to her freedom, and got her body and life back. When she finished this, she’d fix everything. She’d force the girl who stole from her to return with the borrowed body to make the final switch and right everything.

The teenager—whoever Lenchena was—had traded places with Ariel, and taken off on Ariel’s ship, in her body. It had taken a lot of searching but Ariel had finally found out how, and at the first opportunity she’d get off this shipplanet. For four years no one believed what had happened to her. Being stuck at the orphanage, away from all civilization hadn’t helped.

At least marriageable age meant interactions with others to find a mate. This meant Ariel had her chance now.

Closing her eyes, she let her mind relax. Her journey from twenty-five to a fourteen-year-old in the span of a day had been rough and her imprisonment in this body needed to end before the threat of no escape became a reality, thanks to rumors of sex bonding people. Gulping, she clenched her fists under her desk. This body turned eighteen soon, and adulthood beckoned. Glancing at the clouds, she vowed to find a way out of this nightmare. Drastic measures needed to be taken to get her body back. Tension built in her back, a frown embedded on her face. This planet and their weird ways would soon be behind her. She rolled her shoulders to release the tension.

Listening to the school teacher drone on about the sex ritual rubbed her skin raw. No one experienced the pure fantasy Rochelle claimed mating did for the soul. She reviewed her plan in her head to ensure her escape wasn’t thwarted. The back of the spine was the perfect spot for the body switch, though less than one out of every three billion Sheratons had this power, if that many. She learned that in a book she’d found a few months earlier that explained how body switching occurred. If it was to be believed, Ariel’s fingers could return her life back. Just her luck the girl massaging her back had that unique power discussed in the occult history of the planet. It took her years to find the answer on how to reverse this. Ariel’s host body had the means.

To keep her blood level low, Ariel let her eyes fade into her fantasy world. Lenchena in her stolen body, in engineering, cowering in a corner when Ariel strolled in to confront her, then using her fingers to steal her life back. Snapping back from her fantasy, she took notes. Everything had a purpose. Move forward with her plan, find the female who did this, and set everything straight. Staying in tip-top shape meant constant movement, but when the time came, she needed to be like the engines she once loved to work on. Engines had purpose and drive and precision. A genuine smile grew on her face, while she tasted home. Her mouth watered for victory. Precise movement in timed order would bring her life back. Being back on the Thrycer remained her dream, and she’d see that world again, through her own eyes.

Fingers crossed, she turned her attention back to the teacher. Hopefully, whoever’s body she stole would understand she needed to fix this upset in the universe.

2

Grace

The Zoastra

Grace checked the computer consoles and read a report one more time while the rest of the Command Center remained hard at work.

Because they arrived at an alien planet, she had to ensure her equipment worked before she diverted her energy. She was the head science officer on the ship. She’d have to visit that planet as the head science officer on the ship. The Sheratons were known as a planet full of aliens who appeared human. The label humanoids applied to most species, but the Sheratons earned the extra label of being the most attractive people Earth had ever encountered.

As she closed her eyes, she hoped to leave this part of space and get closer to their bigger mission soon. With renewed hope, she opened her eyes again, she hit a button on her module, and ran a scan.

Soon they would discover something new, something more interesting, when the ship traveled into uncharted space to find the aliens that attacked Earth.

When she pulled up a viewfinder, she hit the focus button and started the search.

The General stood. She froze, and stared at her husband Peter. His clear blue eyes met hers before his attention returned to Aurelius.

General Aurelius turned to the senior officers. I’m ordering a landing party to the planet to study the Sheraton culture.

Grace nodded to her husband, who stood at the General’s right hand side as he spoke to his crew, following procedure, we’ve scanned the planet, and with the Sheratons assistance, we’ve run additional security developed by clearance weapons chief, Captain Cross. It has been deemed safe to continue our assessment of their planet, as ordered.

Her gaze swept across the room to stare at the dark haired, dark eyed security officer, Captain Cross. Besides her husband, he was the hottest man on the ship. Her errant thoughts about his broad shoulders had started when he saved her on that planet a few weeks back, not that he ever looked at her beyond her title, Peter’s wife. And not that she would do anything.

Peter was the best.

Grace tapped her foot, and fanned herself. She assured herself the reports must have missed something. The reporters, probably, male scientists, didn’t understand female resistance. The Sheratons had to have women who didn’t like the separation of gender. All women could not be happy there.

To stop her wayward thoughts, she fixed a piece of her hair, then checked on a routine report on the ship’s power status.

She halted for a moment, and decided to dig up research on her own. The Sheratons couldn’t be that backward. Women who simpered made her want to hit something. There had to be more than happy submissive wives without ambitions somewhere on that planet.

With a quick glance around, she saw everyone busy with work. With a nervous tick, she rubbed her neck, she pulled up the data on Sheraton women, and proceeded to read about everything she hated most in her gender, all combined into this one race of people.

She watched a video on the plants inhabitants, and wrinkled her nose. Fake smiles and fake boobs equaled both her mother-in-law and the Sheratons. Grace’s stomach clenched and she turned the video off. She glanced at her handheld electronic tablet that functioned as a notebook, scrolling the pages with her finger. She found nothing to like on the Sheratons.

In the next clip, again, all the women beamed at the men.

Gag.

No. They could not possibly be happy, like this document indicated.

The echo of a thump shook her when she set the tablet down. Jumping, she bit the inside of her cheek and attempted to get her focus back to the key word search with her viewfinder, for the General.

She hit a button. The search engine did its thing, and her gaze slid back to the tablet.

At least one Sheraton woman must have complained. If she could only locate the record! She threw her hands up in the air, and gave up. She’d found nothing.

The viewfinder located something different in the plant life. She let out a sigh, and hit a button. With a shrug, she assumed the difference was vegetation because a farmer cross bred to create a hybrid plant. No anomalies surfaced. Everything checked out. One project done, she shrugged. She checked back on the plants and, yep, her guess had been right.

Science and research meant exploring new worlds, even male oriented ones like this planet. So why didn’t her theory that all women wanted to have some rights pan out on this planet? The tablet in her lap made her appear to be working. She pushed her tablet to the side as heat rose inside her, and her ears burned. Something had to exist.

The computer light turned green, indicating the completed word search. The Sheraton research would have to wait. She tugged at the collar of her uniform and cast a quick glance around. Pulling together the data in the power status report, she quickly copied and pasted it into a spreadsheet. She hoped no one bothered her when she picked up her tablet again.

The aliens simpered when a man spoke to them. Reading the report was causing her a headache, and Grace’s neck stiffened when she couldn’t dig up one clue. These Sheraton women never voiced any objection on record of the rumors of gender inequality.

The General turned to her and she froze. Major Newman.

Her gaze swung to Peter, who remained working diligently at his station. The General meant her, not her husband. Biting her lip, she put her tablet down and rose. Putting her hands behind her back, she nodded, giving him her full attention. Sir?

The General gave a curt nod. The Sheratons requested our assistance in working on their planet defenses. You, Major Peter Newman, and Captain Cross will be deployed to the planet.

Peter coughed. Grace knew he hoped for a promotion and wouldn’t be too excited about this mission. The last mission to rescue her from an alien planet hadn’t been much fun for her either. Her lips pressed together as Peter gave her a look. Crossing her arms, she waited until the other officers went back to their work before she sat down. Picking up her tablet, she tapped her finger on her seat. Why send a woman to the male run planet? The Sheraton home world was one place she’d never planned to visit, but the General’s orders were absolute. Narrowing her eyes she jotted down an electronic message, egotistical jerks won’t like me. She sent it to Peter while keeping her eyes on her view screen and holding her tablet.

A moment later, she turned her chair to see Peter smile at her before he went back to doing something at his seat.

Sighing, she flipped another page of the reports. Nothing. She couldn’t find one woman of interest. She preferred to move along to a planet no one else had studied, and not a place where men talked down to you because you were a woman. Rolling her eyes, her blood boiled. This planet could stop trading with Earth tomorrow for all she cared.

General, are you sure you want us to go? Peter asked.

Aurelius smiled. Think of it as a gift. The massages are known around the galaxy.

The friendship between her husband and the General made working with her husband possible. Regulation amongst officers didn’t support familial relations. Aurelius added, They are reputed to be the best hosts in this quadrant, and you need to relax.

Grace barely contained a snort. The General had no idea. She bit back her sharp tongue. For over ten months she’d spent more time with strangers than she did her own husband, unless working in Command counted. Her lips pursed. It had stopped being enough a while ago. She needed to stop working around the clock just to see Peter.

Peter hoped to run his own ship one day. The emptiness inside her grew, though she’d known all along of Peter’s dreams. She let out a small exhale. When they’d been six-years-old, back on Earth, he’d made missions into space sound like a dream world where excitement and adventure waited around every star in the sky. She’d adored him, following him everywhere. But the reality left a lot to be desired. Covering her mouth, she told herself to stop pouting.

She’d always loved him.

At his station, Captain Cross took a quick step forward, gaining everyone’s attention. I joined this crew to fight the aliens who attacked us, not to maintain good relations with model types not looking to serve in the fight. We need to find those who attacked us, sir.

We are not pushing into deep space to search for them until we have a full crew, Peter answered. We’re almost ready, but General Aurelius demands the best crew available from all the colonies.

A few more weeks, Aurelius said, perhaps less. It’s better to go with the best weapons and people to find our new enemy.

Turning back to her station, Grace packed her bags. Nothing on Earth will ever be the same, but she hadn’t joined to fight the good fight. She’d joined Earthseekers to get away from her parents and to prove herself. At the time, the only person that made her heart swell had been Peter. It’s why she married him. Grace hung her head. She lacked the fierce courage Cross possessed to find and face the unknown aliens who’d destroyed everything from Montreal to Boston.

She lacked passion for anything. The only time her pulse raced was when she was with Peter, but these days, they never spent time together away from work here in the command. With his seat next to the General, they rarely spoke. The isolation of space and loneliness gnawed at her, to the point where she stopped caring about her mission, though she tingled with excitement at the thought of getting off the ship. Tapping her feet, she shook her head. The planet left a lot to be desired, but she needed to breathe in clean air.

Focusing on her mission, Grace pulled up the research files listed under miscellaneous knowledge. Shrugging, she released the tension and dug deeper into the database. Sheratons were known to be great flawless beauties. Looking up at Peter, she smiled. He wouldn’t notice their beauty. Peter loved her and was oblivious to his good looks, never realizing when a woman flirted with him. The man had pursued her and never gave any indication he’d even blink at another woman. She sucked in a breath, trusting him was the easy part. She was the recent problem.

As soon as these side missions ended, deep space beckoned. If she didn’t bridge the growing lack of intimacy, then the loneliness could get worse, breathing the recycled air with no smell and no escape. Yes, she’d pay for a massage. It could help.

Her ears perked back up, when her friend at communications, Lieutenant, Rosemarie, joined the conversation from across Command. I’ll volunteer to go get a massage and learn the language down there.

A massage. Reaching up to unlock the knot in her back, deciding she’d buy it. Grace needed one.

Sheraton is in the linguist database, Lieutenant . . . Aurelius kept his head straight, not looking at Rose.

Grace smiled. Everyone on the ship knew Rosemarie’s parents funded and planned the space operations and that a not so secret relationship existed between the General and Rosemarie.

Aurelius spoke to Peter while Grace finished packing a bag. She listened to most of the conversation. The new Chief Engineer and Colonel will be arriving next week. I have to stay here and brief them on their duties aboard ship. Like Cross, I want to get moving into space, but Earthseekers intend to keep up a trading relationship with the Sheratons. Don’t waste too much time here, but . . . I need you down there. We need to get this simple mission accomplished. The talks are scheduled to begin shortly.

The General’s deep magnetic voice spoke to Peter in a familial tone and her eyes widened. Go to the planet. Be my emissary and make nice with the Sheratons.

Looking down she suppressed the urge to smile. Aurelius depended on Peter. Good. Her husband had to be close to that promotion.

Rosemarie’s eyes met hers. The gleam of happiness the woman had was contagious, although she tried to contain her reaction, Grace’s lips twitched. Her face broke out into a wide grin at the interaction between the two men.

She turned her seat toward her screen, covering her laugh when she spotted her closest neighbor on the deck, Cross. His dark black eyes displayed his displeasure, but he said nothing. She shrugged. The hot man had major issues that a good woman might be able to fix. He needed to laugh.

She caught Peter staring at her from across the room, and his clear blue eyes filled with warmth. Grace’s stomach did a flip. The love of her life still kicked up her heart rate every time they shared time together. Soon, they’d find time to reconnect. She’d go mad if they didn’t. She turned her chair and smiled back.

They were lucky to be together. It was uncommon for husband and wife teams to serve under the same General, but their combined experiences were a rarity. The Earthseekers had made an allowance. Not that it mattered, not having been physical in months. She had worked so hard getting the ship in order that time pulled them apart. The differing hours and constant demands on him meant the man hardly slept.

Grace punched a button, managing to appear busy. Cross caressed a weapon and checked its grid, glancing over to her side. Her entire body blazed hotter, fighting off a fantasy. Closing her eyes, she told herself not to ever let those thoughts run through her head. She loved Peter. Kissing or hugging or imagining wiping away that man’s dark cloud if she ran her hands down his spine . . . arrghh . . . She needed to stop.

Fixing her uniform, she told herself fantasies don’t matter, when Peter’s blond hair and muscular build were hotter. Peter had the looks of a god, and her stupid fantasies came from boredom. All three of them going down together to the planet meant she would need to put an end to the ‘getting naked with Captain Cross’ fantasy. Grace would never cheat on Peter. She had married him, twice now.

Standing up, she walked to communications to pick up an earpiece in case hers broke on the planet. Glancing over, she saw Peter joking with the General. His good humor carried him far. Plus he treated her better than royalty. Picking up the device, she walked back to her station, passing by Cross. Schooling a blank expression, she surmised her vivid daydreams started when Captain Cross rescued her on a previous mission. She’d not spent one night alone with Peter since that ordeal.

She shook her head free of the images. She had signed on for this mission to explore the universe with her husband at her side, and that needed to be her focus.

Peter winked at her when he left for the elevator with Cross at his side. She smiled back seeing that the men might be of the same build, but her husband’s authority and presence outshone the other man. Cross smiled at her husband, and her heart twisted. The men were friends, and she had no business entertaining these thoughts.

Newman. The General stopped her from following.

Standing straighter, she nodded, Yes, General.

Is there something wrong?

No, sir. I finished downloading all the notes on the Sheraton home world.

Anything of importance that security missed, but science finds curious?

"Not really.