Sci-Fi Romance Request

Thea's request: "Aspirational, sci-fi romance featuring at least one pterosaur, not necessarily a main character. "

GoFundMe Link: Markie's Canadian Dinosaur Adventure

Donate $10 and I'll write you a dinosaur short story with your requested genre, dinosaurs and whatever fun, silly, ridiculous thing you want to add.

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“Nice flying out there today, pilot,” Lex’s admiral praised her as she pulled her helmet loose, letting her braid fall free. It had been tough getting through the debris floating around their command center, nestled far in the neighboring galaxy of the Milky Way.

“Thank you, sir,” she said with a smile. “All in a day’s work.”

Admiral Plume put a clawed hand on her shoulder and gave it a pat. He was graying around the edges of his beak, his proud oviraptor crest not quite as bright as it once was. The battle scars he had suffered from the long distant War of Extinction left the feathers under his right eye white and weak, but he was still strong and proud.

“You keep up work days like this, and you’ll be making Captain in no time.”

The words caused her to beam, her goal of climbing the ranks in the Human/Saurian Space Alliance was a secret to no one. She had been aspiring to become something more than a humble space pilot since she joined the force, with a dream of being the Captain of her own ship and leaving the station for adventures into uncharted universe.

Everyone knew her very noble and respectable goal, but no one else knew about what her heart had wanted. Instead of focusing on her training, on her rank tests and political standing within the social ladder of the military, she was pining after someone she had no business falling for. Her feet were moving but her mind was elsewhere, wondering quietly if she could think of some excuse to make her way to his lab, find some reason to stop in for a visit. He wasn’t on the way back to her quarters, wasn’t anywhere near the mess hall or the classrooms, but yet...she found herself standing in front of his lab’s door.

Her mouth went dry, her brain a scramble of what to do next. Knock? Just go inside? She was a mess when she was close to him, a fierce space pilot reduced to a nervous wreck outside of a door. The door slid to the side suddenly and Lex almost shouted in alarm, her breath catching in her throat with her fist still raised to knock.

“Lieutenant,” Simon blinked at her, his synthetic amber eyes focusing. Lex stared at his face, perfectly human and beautiful except for the blue hue to his artificial skin and the way his irises gave of the slightest warm glow.

“Hey,” she finally managed, clearing her throat and lowering her arm once she remembered it was there. Scales, he was so pretty it hurt. Pretty and smart. And synthetic -- an android.

Not really a person. Or so was the normal assumption of synthetics, but Lex disagreed. She was pretty sure she was in love with the guy.

“Welcome back,” he smiled, stepping aside to invite her into his bio and medical lab. “How was the mission?”

“Oh, you know...business as usual. Had to break up some rogue comets and nasty space things,” she laughed, swallowing when Simon took her jacket for her and hung it on an empty chair.

“Nothing too dangerous, I hope,” Simon poured her some tea he always seemed to have brewing even though he never actually drank tea...or anything at all. It was as if it was always just for her, or so she hoped.

“Dangerous? Nah,” she laughed, waving her hand, trying to hide her nerves. “Besides, danger is my middle name.”

“Is that so? I thought it was ‘Cera’,” he offered mildly, handing her a cup of tea.

“Oh...well….yes, it...it is. I was just…” she faulted, getting a warm chuckle from the android.

“I was joking, Lieutenant.” Simon smiled and Lex’s face burned up.

I’m an idiot.

“What’s that tattoo of, if I may?” Simon moved past the embarrassing moment, motioning to the ink that was on Lex’s right arm.

“Oh, it’s a pterosaur,” she rolled up her sleeve a little to show it off. “They were always my favorite as a kid, and it still saddens me that they didn’t make it through the Extinction War.”

“Yes, I read the history about that. It was before my time. All the Saurians, avian and nonavian alike made it through, but the pterosaurs...tragic.” Simon shook his head.

“They were beautiful. Masters of the sky,” Lex smiled, remembering watching them soar through the air when she was little, before the galaxy was pushed into war. If not for the Saurians, humans would have gone under just like the pterosaurs, and the dinosaurs would be all that was left from earth. While the Saurian nation was brilliant and welcomed humans as their very odd, distant, weird, harry cousins, synthetic life wasn’t something they thought was noble. Simon was treated well, but he wasn’t someone who was going to be more than a doctor in a lab, no one who was ever going to be in charge.

Lex was clawing her way to the top, fighting to be a human among the ranks of the great Saurian soldiers, but what she was feeling for the handsome android in front of her was career suicide.

“They were special to you…?” Simon asked gently, his hand resting on top of hers in a sweet gesture. It gave her goosebumps how his palm was artificially warm.

“Very special,” she whispered, daring to meet his beautiful eyes. For just a moment, the universe shrank around them, and it was just the two of them standing in his wonderful lab, watching each other for movement.

“Hey, Lieutenant.” A voice broke the amazing moment, prompting Lex to pull her hand away out of an instinct she hated herself for. The voice belonged to Pod, a kind but ill timed brachiosaur who ran tech diagnostics and played a lot of Dungeons and Dromaeosaurs.

“Coronal is looking for you. Apparently we have some inbound boges that need shooting. Pew, pew!” Pod didn’t have hands so he couldn’t motion the appropriate finger guns to go with the sound effect, but it was implied.

“Thanks, Pod.” Lex pushed to her feet and tried not to smile like a dork with Simon handed her the flight jacket.

“Be careful, Lieutenant,” Simon offered as always, a soft smile on is pleasant face.

If Lex could have manipulated time and space, she would have arranged the whole universe as they knew it to leave them alone for a day and probably somehow make pterosaurs not be extinct. Since it was beyond her abilities, Lex just slumped away to go save the day once again and keep pushing towards her goal of Captain.

It was more than just a couple stray asteroids and debris this time around, and Lex had her work cut out for her. The mission stretched from hours into days, as she had to travel towards the outposts stationed on ice clusters and comet cores mines. The hail storm of what seemed like whatever the universe could throw at them lasted forever, and Lex came close to taking major hull damage to one of her fighter ships. The thought of needing one of her limbs reattached from a breach like that had her musing about being partially synthetic and wondered if that would be enough to make her romance with Simon justifiable to society.

Probably not. But it was a nice daydream.

After what seemed like an eternity, Lex finally made it back to the main command center for some much needed rest and medical screening. She was a little bruised from being tossed around space, and was happy for the excuse of seeing Simon. His smiling face did not disappoint, but it seemed that he was nervous...which was something she didn’t think androids could be.

“You alright, Simon? You seem...jumpy,” she peered at him as he fretted about his lab, glancing towards the entrance habitually.

“Could you...lock the front, Lieutenant?” he whispered finally, taking her off guard. She hesitated a moment before sealing the lab doors and securing them with her authorization code.

“What’s going on, Simon?” Lex finally asked, following him towards his work table that had a large box on it, covered with a cloth. Simon took a deep breath, which was all show since he didn’t breathe, and pulled the cloth away from the object. It was a cage, lined with soft fabric and a makeshift nest that housed a small, dimorphodon chick sleeping inside. Lex’s hands flew up to her mouth, a silent gasp freezing her throat.

“Holy coprolite,” she hissed. “Is that--”

“I wasn’t sure which was your favorite...so I just picked one,” Simon smiled, opening the cage to pull the drowsy chick out. It peeped at them, its snout lined with little sharp teeth, soft brown downy fluff covering it from head to its diamond shaped tail. When it looked at her, its eyes glowed just slightly.

“It’s synthetic…” Lex whispered. “You made a synthetic pterosaur…!”

“Yes. I couldn’t bring them back to life for you, Lieutenant, but I made it as real as I could. As real...as I am,” he whispered, his voice gentle as the fragile little pterosaur in their hands. It was the sweetest, most amazing thing Lex had ever seen, had ever heard uttered from any creature who could speak. She kissed him, social barriers be damned! She was in love with this amazing android who made her a pterosaur!

“I’m afraid this will complicate your Captinhood, Lex,” Simon warned, not wanting to move away from her embrace. Lex smiled brilliantly and stroked the little dimorphodon’s fuzzy head.

“One battle at a time, my sweet synthetic darling,” Lex said as she kissed him again. “One battle at a time.”