The Alien Princess and Me

 

H.R.Giger

The Alien Princess and Me by James W. Allmon

You’ve no doubt heard the phrase “Love at first sight”, but how about “Love at first empathetic touch of your cerebral cortex”? 

Okay, it’s a mouth full, I get it. And you probably don’t have a clue what I’m talking about.

Let me explain. One day I was minding my own business, having a cool and frosty beverage on the beach, when I felt a presence inside my head. It wasn’t anything that startled me, just a calm and sweet something.

I gazed around the beach with the idea I might see what was causing it, but didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.

As I closed my eyes and leaned back into my lounger the presence grew stronger. I know it sounds weird, but I didn’t feel threatened. I suppose I had a huge question mark in my mind, just like the ones you see in the comics. To my amazement I felt, more than heard, a voice ask me if I was okay.

How can you answer that? I mean, a voice in your head, talking to you and asking if you’re okay? Good grief! But somehow, I was. In fact, I was damned curious because the “voice” was incredibly sexy and unlike any I had ever heard. Even stranger was the fact it had what I thought was an otherworld accent. Well, I know it wasn’t Japanese or French at least. Now, I don’t normally think with an accent and guess you probably don’t either, so I was thinking this was a bit unusual. Even for me. 

“Who are you?” I said. Realizing I spoke aloud to apparently no one, I glanced around to see if anyone was preparing to call the Happy Home. Nothing. Not even a sideways look. Thank goodness for cell phones and wireless ear things to make possibly unhinged people appear normal.

“Don’t be frightened”, the voice said. Frightened? Hell, I was totally hooked! 

“Uh, who are you?” I asked as nonchalantly as possible. 

“My name is Athanora and I come from very far away.” 

 “No kidding!” I thought. 

 “No kidding at all.” 

 “Oh crap! She read my thoughts!”

“Yes.” She sounded amused. “But I won’t unless you ask me to. Your privacy is safe with me. ” 

Oddly, I believed her. Something about her exuded trust.

“What do you want? I mean, uh, I know that sounded terrible, but why are you talking to me?” God, I sounded lame. I mean, is that any way to talk to a sexy, disembodied voice?

“I need your help.”

How was I supposed to say no? I mean, come on! I was ready t swim the ocean if she asked me to. How was this possible you ask? Fair enough. I found out later that she was accessing the mirror neurons in my brain to help me empathize with hers. They sort of cause a reflex action in a person brain that sees another doing something. In this case it was emotions. I was feeling her feelings. I recommend it, guys. It’s a terrific shortcut to the heart of the matter if you’ll pardon the analogy. It makes you think you can understand women.

“Where are you?” I asked.

“Germany.” She replied.

“What? How am I supposed to help you’re way over there?” Isn’t it funny that the fact I was holding a conversation completely inside my head wasn’t the issue? “What do you want me to do?”

“I lost my ship and I need your help to locate, and most probably, to facilitate healing repairs.”

“But… “

“Don’t worry. I can show you how to do everything you need. The knowledge is easily transferred into your human brain.” 

Up to now I was convinced I was still fairly sane, but this just did me in. “What? Human? Aren’t you?”

“Not exactly, Jimi” 

She knows my name! Holy shit! 

Sparkling light filled my mind and I can only describe it as laughter. It was amazingly sweet and I never wanted it to go away. 

“Yes, I do. I can read your mind, remember? I scanned you before I made myself known in order to verify you were, in fact, the correct one for my needs.” 

 I shivered, but not from the heat of the Florida sun. I felt blessed, somehow.

“Uh…” I articulated with aplomb.

More sparkling light. Wow!

“How, uh, what can I do? I’m not rich and can’t really go anywhere to look for your ship. Besides, if you lost it, how do you expect me to find it? And what would I do if I did?” 

“Be patient.” Her voice was hypnotic and soothing. “Close your eyes and relax your thoughts. I’ll show you.” 

The sparkling light in my mind grew brighter and brighter until it deleted all thought. I seemed to be floating in an ocean of white light with no up, down, right or left. I definitely wasn’t in Kansas! 

A small speck appeared in the distance. It could have been very close or a million miles away. As it turned out, it was much closer and much farther at the same time. It has something to do with the Quantum Reality Matrix. Interesting, huh? But I digress.

The speck grew in my focus and I made out a woman’s face that was singular in its beauty. The halo of her hair was just the right shade of brown, her lips full and sensual, her face amazing in its perfect symmetry, but it was her eyes that held me captive. Green pools of jade gazed confidently into mine and I have to tell you, I was a goner. My heart was no longer mine in any way, shape or form.

I sighed. It was all I could do.

“Hello, Jimi. Here I am." She seemed to breathe the words while a small secret smile played with the corners of her mouth.

“Uh…” God, I’m such a brilliant conversationalist!

“We have very little time. May I show you where I last saw my ship?”  

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. After all, I didn’t want to look like a complete moron.

She reached up with her right hand and touched me on the cheek. Her palm was cool and soft and it beat the hell out of the Vulcan mind meld thing I saw on Star Trek! Abruptly, as if someone changed the channel, I saw the Earth from a very long way out and realized the view was from past the moon’s orbit. I seemed to be viewing it through some sort of control panel as it grew alarmingly fast. There were bright flashing lights and piercing alarms blasting out their warnings. Our hand (ours?) flew over the controls in a furious attempt to right whatever was wrong. We felt frightened and unsure of what was happening. We also knew the emotions and visions were from Athanora. It was odd experiencing her memories while able to watch from my perspective as well. I had merged with her in almost every way. It was weirdly exhilarating.

There was a sudden wail of a different klaxon and our attention was jerked to another readout. I didn’t know what it was trying to say, but we knew it wasn’t good. There was a sharp intake of our breath and sudden fear nearly paralyzed us. We paused for the space of three very rapid heartbeats, and decided. We grasped the sides of the command couch, felt for the hand grips on either side and pulled as hard as we could. 

We felt the cool organic embrace of the Life Support Cocoon as it enveloped our body in just under a millisecond. The next thing we knew we were ejected and alone in space as we watched the ship enter the atmosphere trailing a hideous plume of aquamarine fire. We felt a wrenching in our soul as we saw the sleek silver ship plummet into the Earth’s embrace. The auto sequencer wetware in our brain activated the homing and tracking signal so we would be able to locate the ship as soon as we were able. That is, if she were intact. 

The LSC computed the safest trajectory for our body’s descent to the planet surface. It deployed the .01cm thick bio-carbon wings and we flew like a bat into hell. We couldn’t see anything with our eyes, but the sensors input the data straight into our neuro-wetworks, allowing us to visualize perfectly. We arced gracefully over what I knew was the North Atlantic until we approached the European Continent. We felt nervous because the LSC didn’t have long-range capabilities and would soon fail if we didn’t land. Fortunately the universe was with us and we touched down safely on the outskirts of a large city. After scanning the area and deciding there was no public outcry over our sudden appearance, we allowed the LSC to dissolve into vapor.

“But the ship?” I thought. “Where did it go? Is it still intact?”

We caused the memory of the landing to freeze and accessed a map in the virtual network embedded in our brain. A perfect 3D rendering of the earth sprang into life spinning on its axis until the South Pacific came into view. The image zoomed inward and was filled with ocean and tiny dots of land. It was some sort of island chain. 

“The ship is there. She’s intact, but needs healing. Will you help us?” 

“You talk about it like it’s alive or something.” I said. This was more than a little confusing at this point. I’m sure you’d agree.

“She is. She’s my sister.”

By James W. Allmon ©2009