WHEN I WENT TO sleep, I half expected to wake up back in my house, staring at the white ceiling and wondering when life would give me a break. Instead, I remained in a low, navy blue tent on an inflatable mattress. The walls of the caves absorbed all sound except for the quiet squeaking of rubber.

Time to rise and shine. I got enough rest to keep me sharp if someone finally decided to attack. So far, these aliens, if that's what they were, weren't aggressive but things might change.

Nasilain had wanted to read for a while, so she let me sleep in her room while she curled up on an inflatable chair with a tablet. She still sat in the same position, except an empty pot replaced a cup of coffee, and an orange cat had appeared on her lap.

I climbed out, having no clue what time it was and not giving a damn. Ever since my shoulder injury, I had been floating, looking for purpose. I had thought I found it on the police force, but even before the suicide-by-cop fiasco, I hadn’t been satisfied. It didn’t replace the rush of being on a mission. This place, though? At the very least, this was an adventure.

“Morning, Nasilain.” I crawl-walked closer, thanks to the low ceilings of the cave.

“Morning,” she mumbled back, her eyes still glued to the screen.

“You guys wouldn’t have a change of clothes by chance, would you?” Not that I never had to go for a few days without changing, but I’d rather not do it again.

“Mhm,” she answered, still reading.

“Could I have it? I wouldn’t mind taking a shower.” Did she even hear what I said?

“Sure,” she answered in the same absent tone.

“Wanna take a shower with me?”

“Sure.” She flipped the page on the ereader app.

“Or we can skip the shower and get naked right here. It’ll save us some time.”

“Great idea.”

Suspicion confirmed. She didn’t hear a word. I couldn’t see the name of the book from here, but it must be something good to suck her in like this. Probably shouldn’t distract her.

My stomach grumbled in disagreement. I could go to the kitchen myself, although I wasn’t sure how everyone else would react to me without an escort.

I put my hand on Nasilain’s shoulder to get her attention, but she only mumbled, “What is it?”

Even the cat got the idea, stretching out and walking past the curtain that covered the mouth of the cave. Maybe I needed to shock her out of it with something more than just words.

I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her to my chest. Nasilain gasped, whirled around and extended her hand toward me. A hand that buzzed with electricity. Damn.

“What did you do that for? You can’t do that.” Nasilain eyes went wide, but her fingers went back to normal.

I lifted my hands to appease her. “Sorry. I’ve been trying to get your attention. How did you do that?”

Nasilain lowered her hand. “Magic.”

“Right, sure it was. Science so advanced it looks like magic.”

“How do you know about science?”

Was she serious? “From school.”

“I mean about the advanced science being needed for magic.”

“That’s common knowledge amongst science fiction nerds. So this is all just technology, huh? Alien?”

“Sorceress.” She shot me one last dirty look before putting the tablet away and slipping off the inflatable armchair. The ceiling hung too low to walk, so she got to the curtain half-crouching, giving me a perfect view of her heart-shaped ass.

“Sorceress from another planet.”

“You would rather believe in life on other planets than magic? We're just in a parallel dimensions. Besides, we have elves.”

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“Long-eared cultists in neon green pants. That's more science fiction than fantasy.” I eyed the strange outfits of the elf nurses while Nasilain rummaged through the boxes and pulled out a change of clothes for me. Thank God, none of it was neon green. Just a pair of black sweats and a white tee. “Seriously, what were you reading all night?” If it was a sci-fi thriller, she might be my kind of girl, alien or not.

“I tried to find a way to neutralize poisons. Instead, I ended up finding information about splitting atoms. Turns out there is a lot of energy that can be released if I can split a large atom. Maybe we won’t have to get any more wind generators.” She still looked like her mind hadn’t climbed out of the book, but at least her answers were more thought out.

“That's a bad idea. You can blow things up by splitting atoms.” And I didn’t want to be there when that happened.

“Really?” She tilted her head, said “hmm,” and went toward the exit.

Morning lit the sky with pink colors that mixed with the green foliage. The air had a cold crispness to it.

“I didn’t realize you had a cat.” If it were black I might've given her extra magic points, but these aliens obviously messed up our fantasy tropes.

“Monkey? He’s Jill’s cat. I have two dogs.” Nasilain's face transformed into an excited smile. “They are the first two dogs to be domesticated in this world. Want to see them?”

“I do,” I answered.

She went from flustered to analyzing and neutralizing dangers. From almost electrocuting me to being giddy about dogs. And she got carried away reading physics. Something must’ve been seriously wrong with me because none of this should’ve qualified as boner material.

Nasilain put two fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly enough to scare a few birds from the treetops. An answering bark came from one of the tents as two large dogs ran toward us, one red, one white and black.

“Hi, girls, you want to eat?” Nasilain asked in a baby voice, then slapped her leg to have them follow her to the kitchen tent.

“What are their names?” What exactly were they? Looked like wolves. Oh shit, red wolves. That made sense. The buggers probably avoided near extinction in this world. Aliens wouldn't have a thing for saving extinct species, would they?

“The red one is Belka, and the other one is Strelka.” Nasilain took two chunks of meat from the fridge and gave them to the dogs. “They are still a lot more wild and dangerous than the dogs in your world, but because we've had them since they were puppies, they got used to humans enough to know we are friends.”

“How are they with the other animals?” Especially that cat. I couldn’t imagine wolves and a domestic cat getting along.

“They still like to hunt a little too much, but as long as we keep them well-fed, they leave the other animals alone. Except for the chickens.”

Both dogs made themselves comfortable on the ground as they chewed on the meat, taking their time with it instead of hurrying to finish before someone tried to attack them. They seemed well behaved. Didn’t even try barking at me.

“You guys manage to get enough food?” The camp had a couple hundred people at least, but I hadn’t seen anything cleared out for farming. They couldn’t be bringing all the food from my world, could they? Cattle wouldn’t cut it.

Nasilain nodded as she busied herself at the stove, throwing minced meat, then covering it with eggs. “The elves are growing hydroponics on the trees. This way, the plants can get enough sunlight, and it doesn’t take the space away from everything else.”

“Sounds like the elves are doing a lot around here.” Hydroponics sounded more alien than fantasy, but at least they didn't have a food synthesizer.

“That’s because they are pacifists. We can’t tell them to love everyone, even when they disagree with them and then tell them to pick up guns and shoot. So, they do everything else. The humans and the dwarves are responsible for the security and rescue missions.”

Nasilain made another giant pot of coffee. Judging by the dark circles, she needed sleep more than anything. Did aliens get dark circles? She looked human. Drop-dead gorgeous and freeze me to death during an orgasm kind of human.

“You know, if you can give me a task, I can do it while you sleep. I bet you stayed up all night.”

Nah. Aliens from the Decoys didn't fit. She'd be eating ice cream, not drinking hot coffee.

Nasilain frowned at the plates she had put on the table, then added salad greens on the side and two steaming mugs of coffee. At least the dishes weren’t from my world. They looked handmade and more fantasy than little green men.

“I don’t know what I can have you do,” she admitted.

“I was a Navy SEAL. I can help with the security side of things.”

She frowned even harder and tilted her head. “You were a seal?”

“Yes. Until I injured my shoulder.” I lifted the offending joint. It had healed nicely since then.

“How?” She asked, then after a short pause continued. “I mean, your world doesn’t have magic. How can you turn into a seal?”

“No, not an animal.” Damn. I should’ve known I’d have to explain. “It stands for Sea, Air, and Land. We did special operations in the military.” My attempt at clarification seemed to confuse her even more. “I know how to use a gun and have a good aim.”

Wouldn't she know it if she was an alien? Our planet's defenses should be their area of interest. No way she was actually a sorceress, though. Magic wasn't real.

“Oh, that’s good. I can leave you up on a tree.” She smiled at me as if she didn’t have a worry in the world.

“Yeah. You’re still up for taking a shower with me?”

“What?” Her neck, then face turned red. “No. That’s… Why would you even ask something like that?”

“You should be careful what you agree to while you’re reading.” Splitting atoms. How could someone get so engrossed in physics?