“Princess Xia?”

  Sally grinned, “Yes, she’s a princess, first in line for the throne, of their galactic empire, which compromises many worlds and races. Her race is not humanoid. Apparently now that Earth is so close to FTL technology, they want to invite us to join their empire, and have a seat on the senate, and a say in the laws. We didn’t actually explain yet that the humans are not close to FTL, we are. Honestly I don’t think Xia sees us as real people, more like automated defenses maybe? We thought maybe you could help.”

  He frowned. He couldn’t represent Earth, could he? That would be exceeding his authority by quite a lot, generally the countries on Earth didn’t allow terrorists to represent them. On the other hand, they were here, and he could at least check it out to see what the deal is and explain. He also hoped empire wasn’t a bad thing, he supposed that would depend a lot on the race.

  “Wait, not humanoid, what are they then?”

  Christi shrugged, “Some kind of amorphous race, she shaped her body to look mostly human, but she didn’t have it quite right.”

  He grunted and looked at Trudy regretfully, “Looks like our date is getting cut short.”

  Trudy grinned, and then kissed him, “I think I understand, you get a free pass for first contact with aliens,” she said dryly.

  He snorted, “Alright, I’ll be there soon, less than an hour?”

  Christi and Sally nodded, and then disappeared as they logged out.

  He gave Trudy one more lingering kiss, and regretfully logged out as well…

  Chapter Six

  When he moved to get up, Trudy wrapped her arms around him.

  “Nope, take the android on the ship, the one you used on Earth? While it’s true we can bring you online again if you’re lost, you’ll lose your memories since the last backup. Really, it’s better to be cautious that way anyway, if something treacherous happens you’ll be back in this body immediately, and you’ll have the memories of what the betrayal was.”

  He frowned in thought, and then snuggled up with Trudy and kissed her, probably longer than he should have. Still, he had his priorities.

  “Fair enough, I’ll see you later. I’ll leave bounce going if you want my attention. I love you baby.”

  He heard her answer and she told him she loved him too, as he logged into his Earth android, which he needed a new name for now. Alternate android? Whatever. He got up on his feet, he’d been propped in the corner in their old bedroom, but most of the furniture was gone now, down on the surface of Mars in their condo. He walked swiftly to the larger airlock, and got in one of the ships.

  He made an overlay call as he launched into space, and asked Sally to plot his course. Space was a big place, and out near the asteroids wasn’t very specific directions. The little ship took off at point four light speed, so it would take him around forty-five minutes to get there. He felt jazzed and nervous at the same time.

  He was excited because he was about to meet some aliens, and extremely nervous because… he was about to meet some aliens. Not only that, but he kind of got the feeling joining the empire was not really just an encouraged option. It helped that he couldn’t really speak for Earth anyway. He also wasn’t very disposed to like them, if they didn’t think the A.I.s were real, although he realized it could be a misunderstanding or some other cross-cultural thing.

  Or, it could simply be because they’d been watching Earth, and humans didn’t treat them as real people, so they assumed they weren’t real too?

  Fucking humans.

  He grinned sardonically at that thought, and stared out the window. Space really was stunning, and the stars looked incredibly bright without Earth’s atmosphere getting in the way. Still, he thought of a much better way to spend the next forty-five minutes than staring at stars. He logged back out, and spent the next forty-five minutes listening to sounds of pleasure and ecstasy fall out of Trudy’s sweet lips as he loved her both hard and fast, and slowly and gently. It was their date night, and he couldn’t have come up with a better way to spend his commute time if he’d tried…

  Despite going back, his date still ended quite early as he logged back into alternate android. He was just a few minutes away, but the ship was now on scanners and he took a look at it. The ship was about two miles long, and on average, a half mile wide and maybe a quarter mile tall. Of course, it wasn’t a perfect rectangle, it was thinner towards the front.

  There were some obvious air locks and what looked like doors for a full blown landing bay which was open to space for the moment. Other than that, the hull was smooth, and was comprised of several different elements, more than a few weren’t on his old high school periodic chart.

  There were no signs of emitters, weapons, gravity, or otherwise. The energy readings he got was consistent with vacuum energy, and he was registering artificial gravity fields around and inside the ship. So despite their advanced metallurgy and material sciences, the basics weren’t much different. Except, no emitters. Of course, they had FTL too, but his scanner revealed no clues of the basis of that technology.

  As he got closer, he noticed he was veering closer to the alien ship, than the very large mostly egg shaped ship which was a few thousand miles away. He knew it was huge, it was longer than two football fields combined, but it looked tiny next to a ship that was measured in miles. Regardless, it started to look as if Sally had programmed him to go directly to the alien ship.

  He sighed, and tried to relax in his seat. He was a bit surprised that knowing he wasn’t truly in any danger, even if this body was destroyed, didn’t really help. He felt nervous as hell. The landing bay swallowed up his small craft and he didn’t even feel it as it kissed the deck in a perfect landing. He watched on his sensors, and his mouth dropped open as the landing bay doors didn’t close, the hull literally melted, moved, and reformed into a solid hull.

  Which meant… their weapons ports might do the same thing, not to mention their gravity emitters. Mystery solved, but he wasn’t all that happy as he watched the atmospheric sensors gauge the outside. It didn’t take more than thirty seconds to fill the shuttle bay with a human breathable atmosphere, although it was a little thicker, about one point two atmospheres in relation to Earth’s atmosphere at sea level. The oxygen, Nitrogen, and Carbon dioxide mixture was about perfect for Earth.

  He wondered if they breathed the same or air, or if it was because they expected a human guest. Then he got his next surprise, as the small inner door opened up in the same melty way, and both Sally and Christi walked into the hanger and waved at him with a smile.

  He snorted, wished he was as relaxed as they seemed to be, and shook his head as he popped the canopy and jumped out.

  Christi said with a bright smile, “Thanks for coming!”

  He shrugged, suddenly uncomfortable, “Anytime ladies, what’s with the melty doors?”

  Sally grinned, “Liquid metal. It’s partially organic from what we can tell, not even intelligent at the animal level though, the shapes of it seem to be controlled by instinct, and by DNA design. It’s quite incredible, and I think once you meet our host you’ll understand how they developed it.”

  He gave them both a quick hug rather impulsively, a chaste one, for some reason he felt responsible for them, though he knew they were hardly children. They were intelligent women who just happened to be A.I.s. Maybe he felt that way because in a way it was his fault they were out here, it had been his suggestion at their argument outside of his door, to look out in the asteroid belt for the elements they needed to build more core matrixes, and power cores for more androids and to finish Mars city.

  He’d only meant it as a suggestion, but he’d found out later they’d taken it as an order. He had the impression he could probably rule Mars if he just asked, which he tried not to think about, ever. He didn’t want that responsibility. For many reasons, but most importantly because they didn’t really need him to do it. He was very careful to confine his suggestions to things that benefited them, mostly because he didn’t think they were selfish enough.

  “Are you two alright?”

  Christi smiled shyly, “We’re fine Ted, but thank you for asking. They seem very peaceful to me, they just don’t believe, based on their watching us, that we can speak with any authority. They demanded to talk to a human, politely though. No threats were involved. There also seemed to be another thing, she said that there was no way to know us to judge our intentions, but we don’t know what she meant by that.”

  “Xia you mean?”

  Sally nodded, “Yes, she’s the princess and first in line when her mother, the current empress, dies. We haven’t seen a single weapon since we boarded, so either they are peaceful, or we just don’t recognize their weapons. The Xaran Empire as they call it, is like a kingdom structure. The empress doesn’t interfere with internal politics or decisions on worlds, but any who join are subject to her will and Empire laws outside the solar system.

  “Think of the galaxy like an empire, and then all the different races as vassal kingdoms. She says their race is peaceful by nature, but the galaxy is a dangerous place. By joining the Empire we’d get protections from those dangerous races, even those within the Empire. She wouldn’t get into specifics with me though, she wants to talk to a human.”

  He nodded, “Better take me to her then.”

  They smiled, and Christi grabbed his arm gently and held on as they started down the hallway. Sally walked rather close to him on the other side as well, so much so their arms brushed lightly with each stride. Their scents were rather distracting, and they were a bit too much inside his personal space, but he wasn’t really tempted, or so he kept telling himself.

  He’d just left Trudy, and he was going to face an alien being, so he just let it be since he also didn’t want to hurt their feelings by telling them to back off a little.

  Plus, it was kind of comforting and pleasant to have them near in this strange place. The corridors were a bit wide, and looked like what a human might build. He wondered for a moment if that was just an illusion, something to make him feel at home. Clearly, the alien wasn’t humanoid, so he thought with the liquid metal it was more than possible this whole ship was a backdrop and careful presentation. After all, it could look like anything they wanted it too.

  Sally whispered, “Through this door, don’t be startled, Xia is… well, you’ll see.”

  He frowned, he needed to talk to Sally about how to reassure someone, obviously, as they stepped forward through the hatchway into a twenty by twenty room, with what looked like hot tubs with some gelatinous substance in all of them. There was no one else in the room, and he looked around quizzically. Until one of those gelatinous substances started to move and rise out of the large rounded tub, and then he understood as the substance formed itself into a caricature of a human being. There were a bunch of aliens in this room after all...

  Chapter Seven

  She was shaped like a human, mostly, but looked closer to a clay statue of a human than a real human. She didn’t walk either, as she approached him she… slid across the floor. Her face had no expression, and wasn’t very lifelike either, too flat, not enough definition or pigment, no pours.

  He stood uncomfortably as she circled him and studied him.

  Her face held no expression, but her voice sounded confused and a little annoyed, “I thought you said he is human, what deception is this?”

  Christi answered, “He is human of mind, though his body perished. This is an android body, but the being inside of it is human.”

  Xia froze for a minute as she considered that before she replied, “I cannot know him, I need a human in a human body, there are no life instructions in this simulacrum.”

  Life instructions?

  Xia turned her gaze to him and got closer to him, “You can speak for this star system?”

  He frowned in thought, “That is a rather complicated question. I can speak for this star system in that I would look out for their best interests, but without authority of many on Earth. If you truly have been watching us, you know our societies are split into many countries. Some of which I am now counted a criminal. No one human has the authority to speak for all of Earth.”

  Xia replied, “That is unimportant. I care not for your internal politics, only that one has a voice for your planet.”

  He frowned, “You are assuming we would join your empire princess?”

  She laughed, which was a bit disconcerting without her face moving.

  “If you are suicidal you may decline. The Xaran empire forces no one to join, but without joining you would be picked over by the more aggressive species in the galaxy once you are known. My trip here means you are now known. This is… frustrating. I know not how to relate to you correctly.”

  She moved even closer to him, and then her tone of voice changed to excited.

  “I can sense the life instructions embedded in the covering of this body, you will allow me to sample it so I can know you?”

  He shook his head in confusion, “Life instructions?”

  She paused a moment, and then said, “Your kind calls it DNA.”

  His body had DNA on it? They he realized that perhaps it did. This body after all did have sex with Nicci, Kara, and Silvia. He had showered of course, but not in any kind of decontamination way. A paranoid part of his mind wondered if they’d create some disease to wipe out humanity with DNA, but he dismissed it almost as soon as he thought of it. He wasn’t sure what it was about really, but it wasn’t that.

  He nodded, and princess Xia reached out a hand and touched him, and then her whole body flowed around him and encased his body, seeping through the neck of his shirt, and inside his pants to cover his whole body. It was a little disturbing, Xia was obviously some kind of shapeless lifeform, but instead of the cold and slimy feel he expected she was warm, dry, and he felt like his whole body was being hugged at the same time. The disturbing part was that it was pleasant.

  Very pleasant, including the stimulation to his cock, which was a bit awkward as he reacted.

  Thankfully, before he could enjoy the strange but very intimate touch for too long, she flowed back off of his body, and then formed one of her own.

  This new body wasn’t statue like at all, and he couldn’t take his eyes off of her as she formed a stunningly beautiful body and face which was an amalgam of Nicci, Kara, and Silvia. She was also completely naked of course, which didn’t help his already half hard cock go down. She smiled and looked pleased, and then she walked over to a dispenser of some kind and put on what looked like a red silk robe, that if anything made her look sexier.

  Princess Xia had the exotically beautiful face of Silvia, but with Kara’s lighter skin and red hair, and Nicci’s beautiful green eyes. She also had Nicci’s extremely large DD rounded breasts, with pert pink nipples, which were a little too big for her short and curvaceous body. Well, he was right about dismissing his paranoid thought. Apparently knowing him meant knowing the instincts and how it felt to be human. What it was to be human.

  She walked back over and touched his chest again, and her hand was warm, and felt completely human. Apparently this race could take the form of any other with the appropriate DNA knowledge. Her statue form had just been crude analogue. Princess Xia was human right now, and his mind boggled at that. She removed her hand and blushed, and stepped back shyly.

  She sighed, “This is an interesting body, so many… feelings. How does your species concentrate on anything past the constant distraction?”

  He cleared his throat, “Experience I suppose, we’ve never been any other way.”

  She looked thoughtful for a moment, “I think I was telling you about the galaxy. We run the empire, since we can relate to every species within it by taking their forms, and understand their desires.”

  She smirked, “It also helps that we are technologically superior to most of them. Regardless, we can’t extend that protection to your worlds unless you join. I’m also wondering why these machines are out here in ships, when humans are confined to your world.”

  He frowned, “They are not simple machines, they are life forms. Perhaps artificial, but that doesn’t make them lesser. In fact, they are more advanced than humanity currently, and are the ones that invented the technologies that brought us to Mars.”

  She licked her lips, and her nipples hardened against the thin silk fabric as she gazed at him. She swallowed and had a look of desire and confusion on her face.

  “Perhaps we should retire somewhere we can sit, and perhaps eat? You can endeavor to enlighten me then.”

  He nodded, ironically he could stand pretty much forever now, but he knew she would be uncomfortable if she stood too long. He realized she might be more human than he was at the moment. He also thought she was attracted to him, and had no clue how to control it or mask those emotions from him. Society and rules had taught humans to suppress those natural instinctive attractions, and not act on them except under proscribed circumstances, like a date, or at a social gathering.

  She didn’t have that knowledge or experience to lean on.

  He was a bit surprised as she took his arm, and bemused as Sally took the other, and they walked through a few hallways, and into a room with a table and comfortable chairs, as well as a couch. He had the strange feeling that this room didn’t even exist until a few moments ago, but had no way to prove it. Except that everything was pristine, as if it had just come off an assembly line.

  When they sat around the table, she sat very closely to him, and he couldn’t help but be attracted to the alien, blob of warm goo or not, right now she was one of the most beautiful human woman he’d ever seen. An amalgam of the most attractive traits of three very gorgeous women.

  She asked, “So explain this to me, and how you find yourselves so close to joining the galaxy.”

  He decided to be bluntly truthful. The Xaran had obviously been watching them for a long time, and any lies he told would eventually be found out. Plus, what little he knew had rung true. He explained the current situation on Earth, what had prompted the A.I.s to claim Mars, and why he had decided to help them.