Page 24 of I Think I’m in Love with an Alien

As I finish my food, I say, “I’ve been making all the decisions. Someone else pick a panel, okay?”

“Does it have to be a panel?” Ravik asks.

“Not at all,” I say quickly.

“Well, there’s a game demo that starts in half an hour. I’d love to get a closer look. But I don’t want to force anyone…” Tad’s voice trails off.

The game must be science fiction if it’s being featured here, but to be honest, I don’t play a lot of them. There are three other things I’d rather be doing, but I don’t want to be the dissenting voice. Happily, Jaz says, “I’d like to go with you.”

“I’m out,” Poppy says.

“Probably not as good as your game,” Ravik says, startling everyone with the praise.

Somehow, before I work out exactly how, we break off into twos. Poppy is going with Ravik, though they don’t seem that interested in her company. And Seeker stays beside me, watching me with an intensity that makes me nervous and excited in the same breath.

“What’s next for us then?” he asks, as if we’ll be inseparable for the rest of the con.

Lord help me, I want that so much.

10

Seeker

I have never experienced anything like this crushing fury.

The sensation blazes hot and cold by turns, a sickness I can’t purge until I act on it. However the authorities discipline the human who made Jen smell of fear and discomfort, it won’t be sufficient. I must do something.

Jen has been unfailingly kind to me. She deserves another level of restitution. And when she excuses herself to “use the facilities,” I make my move. Delving into my bag, I produce a small piece of tech that will do the job. I adjust the setting swiftly; this is a risk, but Colin McFarland deserves worse. I follow the crowd and the smell; his staff are trying to explain the sudden cancellation of his autograph sessions, claiming that he’s been taken ill and regrets being unable to meet his wonderful fans.

With my acute hearing, I detect him nearby, hidden in one of the smaller tents. He’s cursing whoever reported him, talking to someone on the phone. “Well, fucking find out. I want to know who screwed me over. They won’t get away with this! It’s ridiculous.”

I step inside silently and unleash the nanite, small enough as to be undetectable to humans. It arrows to McFarland without hesitation and I glide away, out of sight but still within audible range. It won’t hurt him, but it will scramble his customary filters. I hear the thud of him dropping the phone midconversation, and then he stumbles out of the tent.

“Who do you bitches think you are?” he yells.

A few people turn. From the murmur in the crowd, they recognize him. A few have their phones out, ready to capture a scandal unfolding in real time.

“None of you deserve my time, you get that? You’re a bunch of disgusting, desperate lowlifes! And—yeah, so what if I grab your asses? You love that shit. You go home and get off to it. If you didn’t want me touching your tits, you wouldn’t put them in my face and constantly tell me how much you love me.”

His team rushes him and one of the large security types focuses on shutting McFarland up, but he’s still shouting. “You’re asking for it! You all secretly want it!”

“Posted, you son of a bitch!” a young-looking human says.

“Canceled,” another adds.

As I take silent satisfaction in the outcome, Jen joins me. “What’s going on?”

Before I can reply, a human in a striped costume is eagerly replaying the video. “Check this shit out. He totally had a meltdown.”

Jen watches the clip with wide eyes. “Holy crap.”

“I know, right? I put it on social with hashtags SpaceCon and DarakSaiSayBye.”

“Okay, that’s clever.” She swaps amused looks with the other human. “Give me a sec, I’ll share it.”

“Got fifty shares already. By the end of the day, the whole world will know how trashy he is.”

Delicious satisfaction suffuses me. The tech camo can’t update my emotional state, however. That’s one of its limitations. While it makes me appear human, it can’t process subtleties or emotional nuance.