'Sacmis' (formerly 'Alien Abduction')

Chapter 31: Touch

It was just after 10 p.m ship’s time and the lights had slowly been dimming for the last hour or so, turning to a warm reddish-purple. Gemma was in her quarters, staring out of the viewport into space. As the wheel slowly turned, so the star field shifted around her and, once in every revolution, she could see their destination - Mars - visibly larger than a few hours earlier.

After the ship’s departure for Mars, the women had left for their own quarters, tired after such an eventful day and discussing plans for the next. Chief among these was a visit to the Zero Gravity chamber, including very definitely a second one for Laura. But even more compelling than this was a hint from the Aliens that they might even land on Mars, if conditions allowed.

But for now, for some reason she couldn’t immediately pinpoint, she felt unsettled. It took her a moment to realise what the cause was: out of the four of them she was the only one who hadn’t - intentionally or unintentionally - touched or been touched by one of the Aliens - and she felt just a tiny bit excluded. And intensely curious about the effect the others had described.

Easy to fix that, she thought, as curiosity won out over her usual good sense. She raised her communicator to her face and spoke:

“Irvn?”

There was a moment’s pause then the screen came alive to reveal Irvn’s face.

“Gemma? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, just a little…restless.” 

“Is there anything I can get you?”

She thought for a second then had an idea:

“I don’t suppose you have anything to drink on board, I mean anything… alcoholic? Or is this a dry ship?”

“As it happens, we do,” he replied, smiling. “What would you like?”

“A glass of white wine would be nice.”

“We have a very nice Sauvignon.”

“That would be perfect.”

“Give me five minutes,” he said and the screen went blank.

Now that she realised what she’d done, she half regretted her rashness. But it didn’t stop her slipping on a fresh top and checking her face and hair in the mirror.

A short while later, the door to her quarters gave a quiet warble. True to their word, the Aliens weren’t walking in on them uninvited.

She swiped the door pad and it opened to reveal Irvn holding a bottle and two glasses. He was no longer in his one-piece coveralls, but a loose white tunic, a little like a kurta, over baggy black trousers. She had to admit - he looked pretty cool.

“I understand it’s bad to drink alone,” he said, smiling.

“So you guys drink, too?”

“I’m happy to say that a liking for alcohol is part of the 90% DNA we share and not the 10% we don’t. Besides, Earth wines have been a wonderful discovery. Frankly, we should be stealing wine, not women,” Then seeing the ‘we-are-not-amused’ look on her face, he added, “Sorry, bad joke.”

She walked through into the sitting space and he followed. He poured two glasses and handed one to her. She half hoped their fingers would touch as he did so, but they didn’t. She sipped her wine.

“Cheers,” she said.

“To you,” he replied solemnly, raising his glass.

As she drank

, Gemma realised that she was no longer finding the Aliens quite so surprising to look at. Still fascinating - especially the reflective bronze skin colour and the whirlpool eyes -  but after nearly two days in their company she’d begun to look on them as just different kinds of people.