MOONBOUND: My Alien Boyfriend

CHAPTER 4

The effects of Mason’s kiss turned out to be far more than just a transfer of oxygen. Willow could feel a rush of fresh air filling her lungs, but alongside it, a strange energy surged into her bloodstream.

The dizziness from the earlier blow vanished instantly, replaced by a warm sensation that made all of her senses many times sharper. Willow could hear the steady thumping of Mason’s heartbeat, and she could even feel the deep vibration of the mothership’s engines beneath their feet.

“Breathe, Willow. The air from my body will keep you alive in this ship’s atmosphere,” Mason whispered, after slowly breaking their deep embrace. The gaze in his silver eyes darkened, holding onto the flash of intensity they had just shared.

Willow touched her lips, which still burned with heat, her chest heaving rapidly. “What... what did you just do to me? It felt like...”

“A brief biological bond. My race does this to share life force,” Mason cut in quickly, trying to shift her focus as his sharp hearing picked up heavy footsteps approaching their cell. “And it gives us an advantage. Right now, you possess the physical strength of a regular soldier.”

“What?!” Willow’s eyes went wide. But before she could even process his words, the iron bars in front of them clanked loudly.

Two black-armored alien hunters marched in, their weapons raised and ready. One of them barked a harsh order in a raspy, foreign tongue, then roughly jerked the chain of Mason’s handcuffs to drag him out. They were preparing to execute Mason, and Willow was to be jettisoned into the vacuum of space as organic waste.

“Now, Willow! Hit the console on his waist!” Mason suddenly shouted, intentionally dropping his weight to throw off the guards’ attention.

Willow’s instincts took over instantly. Armed with the newfound speed and strength coursing through her body, she lunged forward and delivered a devastating kick straight to the closest guard’s chest.

*CRASH!*

The massive alien was sent flying back, slamming against the cell wall so hard that his armor cracked. The second guard, caught completely off guard, instantly swung his weapon toward Willow. However, Mason swiftly used the distraction to loop the chain of his handcuffs around the guard’s neck from behind, choking the alien until he went limp and collapsed.

Her breath hitching, Willow scrambled to scoop up the fallen plasma rifle and aimed it right at Mason’s handcuffs. With one precise shot, the magnetic shackles shattered into pieces.

In short, after a thrilling escape through the narrow corridors of the mothership, Willow and Mason managed to h****k a fast rescue jet and sped away into the dark depths of outer space.

However, instead of taking Willow back to Artemis Base, Mason steered the ship toward foreign coordinates in a distant galaxy.

Their ship finally touched down on the surface of a planet that looked gray, desolate, and littered with the debris of a massive meteor strike.

In the midst of this emptiness, Mason led Willow to an underground shelter cave, where he introduced her to his remaining family.

His father named Kaelen, his mother Vanya, and his little sister, Lira.

They were in a pitiful state; their bodies were skeletal, their armor was in tatters, and they were surviving on nothing but the last of their rapidly depleting energy supplies.

“This is all that is left of our home, Willow,” Mason said softly, looking at his family with silver eyes that had dimmed with sorrow.

“Oh, my god... They are so weak,” Willow whispered, her heart instantly breaking at the sight of Lira huddled shivering in a corner of the cave.

Kaelen, the father, tried to stand with what little strength he had left but stumbled immediately. “Mason... you have returned. And you have brought... a human?”

“This is Willow, dad, She is the one who helped me escape,” Mason answered quickly, holding his father steady.

He then turned back to meet Willow’s eyes with a deeply pleading look. “I know this is crazy, Willow. But I need to ask you for a favor. My race are warriors and explorers, we do not know how to rebuild an ecosystem from scratch. I need your human scientific expertise to bring this planet back to life.”

Willow fell silent for a moment, looking at Vanya, who was staring back at her hopefully with tear-filled eyes. “You want me to help you farm and build a civilization on top of this dead soil?”

“Please help us, kind human,” Lira chimed in, her small voice trembling as she clutched the edge of Willow’s thermal suit. “We are so hungry.”

Hearing Lira’s whisper, any lingering doubts in Willow’s heart crumbled. “Alright. I can’t promise this will work right away, but I will do everything I can.”

The days that followed were filled with grueling, exhausting work. Willow began analyzing the composition of this new planet using an emergency scanner she had managed to grab from Mason’s capsule.

She took samples of the gray soil near the cave and mixed them with a few instant chemical reagents. Under the dim glow of her work lamp, Willow was busy analyzing the holographic data flickering in front of her, while Mason and Kaelen watched from behind.

“What are the results, Willow? Is the soil on our planet truly dead?” Kaelen asked anxiously.

“Actually... this is incredible,” Willow replied, her eyes shining as she stared at the flashing numbers.

“The soil structure here is incredibly rich in silicate minerals, remarkably similar to Earth. It’s just that the surface is extremely dry and acidic from the sulfur left behind by the meteor impact.”

“Then, what about the air?” Mason asked, stepping closer until their shoulders brushed. “I noticed you took off your breathing apparatus a few times today.”

“Yes, the air composition has fairly stable levels of nitrogen and oxygen, but there are toxic dust particles still drifting through the atmosphere,” Willow explained, pointing to an air graph on the hologram.

“This planet can’t be inhabited right away. We need large-scale air filters and an underground irrigation system to neutralize the acidity in the soil before we can plant anything. This is going to take a very long time, Mason.”

Vanya stepped forward, carrying a small container of murky water. “We have an ancient water generator in the eastern sector. Would that be of any help?”

“That is an excellent place to start, Mother Vanya,” Willow answered with an optimistic smile. “Mason, take me to the eastern sector tomorrow. We will start from there.”