a limb? Am I that untrusting? Why couldn't I just sit back and accept the situation in the same way that everyone else had? The fact that I didn't share everyone else's utter fascination with the aliens was really starting to bother me. I felt like I was building up a wall between myself and the rest of the world.
I'd missed the first five minutes of the programme but I hadn't missed much. A report from Dreighton and some footage from the alien homeworld, but nothing that I hadn't seen before. The next half-hour dragged.
By the time the programme had finished the faint light in the room had disappeared almost completely. Siobhan got up and switched off the television, plunging the room into a deep, murky darkness. She walked back towards me and I knew that she was undressing. I took off my shirt and, for the second time in an hour, undid my trousers. She lay down on top of me and my excitement rose as I felt her naked body on top of mine.
'Still want me?' she asked.
I didn't answer. Wrapping my arms around her I rolled off the sofa, reversing our positions so that she lay on the carpet with me on top. She took hold of me and gently guided me into her.
'I love you,' I whispered.
'I love you too,' she hissed in reply. 'Now fuck me.'
Three-quarters of an hour later we lay on the floor together, tired, naked and completely fulfilled.
I was starting to fall asleep. I couldn't help it. Siobhan seemed to have ten times the energy I did tonight. She buried her face on my bare chest and kissed and nibbled my skin.
I was filled with a feeling of overpowering warmth, security and comfort, the likes of which I'd only known since Siobhan had walked into my life. There had been long, dark days just a few months earlier when I had thought that there would never be anything positive in my life again. Days when I had envisaged spending the rest of my time alone, never wanting to leave the silent isolation of my home. But Siobhan had always been waiting for me in the next room or at the other end of the phone, and I knew that all of the credit for dragging me back from the edge of the darkest abyss imaginable belonged to the wonderful girl resting in my arms. 'Let me ask you a question,' she asked suddenly.
'Go on,' I replied, forcing myself to wake up a little.
'If you had the chance to travel to the alien planet, would you go?'
'Return trip or one way?'
'One way.'
'A would you be going with me?'
'Forget about me, this is hypothetical.'
'Doesn't matter. I can't forget about you.'
She playfully thumped my chest.
'Just answer the question, will you?'
'I'd like to go, but only if I could come back. And like I said, I'm not going anywhere unless you're going with me.'
How could I turn down the opportunity to travel through space? But on the other hand, was there any point in going? I had everything I wanted in Thatcham. More to the point, I had everything I wanted lying in the living room with me.
I still couldn't believe that I had Siobhan.
Chapter 16
It was impossible not to learn about the aliens. Their power and technology seemed limitless (except, it seemed, when it came to getting home) as did the amount of information available about them. I must have heard a thousand and one facts about them, but I only bothered to remember a handful.
The footage we saw of the homeworld on Visitor Update was reassuringly familiar in many respects. The planet had rolling seas, lush forests and huge open plains. The cities seemed clean and well-ordered. Family homes were spacious and comfortable.
The alien families themselves were similar to our own in some respects, but vastly different in others. The family group itself on the homeworld was considerably more extended than our own, with three generations living together under the same roof. There were two sexes (as I had supposed). Promiscuity, however, was unheard of. When an alien found a partner (and once the partnership had been given approval by the eldest female in the family) the two would be married in a simple ceremony and then mate. And every time they mated, bizarrely, there would be a two-way exchange of genetic information. The upshot of this biological quirk was that, over time, one alien began to assume the characteristics of the