Free Theme Planet by Andy Remic Page A

Katrina
walked arm in arm down to the beach. Pretty lights illuminated the walkways in
the shapes of various Theme Planet alien constellations. At a low zezub step,
they kicked off shoes and walked barefoot in the sand, curling toes, giggling a
little, and headed towards the crashing, booming ocean. They stood, holding
hands like children, simply staring out at an alien ocean from an alien shore.
     
    “It’s just occurred to me,” said
Dex.
     
    “What’s that?”
     
    “I haven’t seen a provax yet.”
     
    “They keep a low profile in Theme
Planet areas. You should have read your in-flight literature. I told you, too.
They don’t want to get in the way of us humans having a good holiday.”
     
    “Yeah, but we’re on their planet.”
     
    “And they make plenty of money
from us, darling. I’ve read a lot about the provax; they’re not that different
from us. We share a similar evolutionary arc. They, too, are descended from
apes - or the nearest alien equivalent, hammered out by the same kind of
gravity.”
     
    “Yeah, well, The Seeding
Theory of Dr Chaos isn’t exactly on my reading list.”
     
    They stood in silence for a
while. The ocean boomed. Surf rolled up the sand, tickling their toes. It was a
long, long moment of perfection.
     
    Dex turned to Katrina. He smiled
at her, and felt her face move, shift, a return smile that he couldn’t really
define in the gloom but could read in the shift of her stance. He knew her too
well, he realised.
     
    “I love you,” he said.
     
    “I know you do, darling. And I
love you back. Love you lots.”
     
    “If... if I ever do something bad,
or stupid, then I didn’t mean it. All right? I love you more than words can
say. I’ll love you ‘til the stars die. I’ll love you until the last ounce of
breath leaves my body.”
     
    She stood on tiptoe, and kissed
him, and then held him tight as the ocean sighed and fell around them.
     
    ~ * ~
     
    Back in the room,
Lex the PopBot had worked a miracle. The children were asleep. Trailing sand,
Dex and Katrina moved to the massive bed and stood, holding each other. Slowly,
Katrina undressed Dex, her hands teasing on his flesh, running through his
chest hair, brushing against his erection. He smiled down at her, and then
reached forward to hold her face in his hands. He kissed her, languorously.
     
    Next, with Dex naked, Katrina
allowed him to undress her. She stepped from her slinky hydra-skirt (made
completely from different colours of suspension-matted oiled water) and they
held each other tight in the darkness, naked. In alcoves around the room,
sensing the mood, sense candles sprang into light and life. Gentle scents
wafted across the space; first, the wide ocean, then pine forests after rain,
then the crushed ice of a mountain summit.
     
    “They think of everything,”
murmured Kat, squeezing her husband.
     
    “They can only add to the
experience,” he said.
     
    “They certainly can’t add to
this,” she murmured, her hands stroking down his body as she slowly lowered
herself to her knees. Dex shuddered, winding his hands through her hair, his
eyes closed and his face lifted to the ceiling.
     
    “Didn’t realise it was my
birthday,” he managed.
     
    Pausing, Kat said, “Just as long
as you’ve got those batteries charged...”
     
    “All charged and ready, my love,”
he sighed.
     
    She stood, and pushed him back
onto the bed, which gave a soft hissing sound and contoured itself around him -
almost a water-bed, but not quite. “Comfy,” he managed.
     
    “It better be strong,” said Kat,
moving to him, climbing atop him, straddling him. He could smell her want, her
lust, her animal need. She oozed sex. What a wife...
     
    “You were right,” said Dex.
     
    “What’s that?” purred Kat.
     
    “This is definitely the best
holiday we’ll ever have…”
     
    ~ * ~
     
    CHAPTER THREE
    MISSION
     
     
     
     
    Amba walked down long, bleak corridors formed from tarnished steel.
She