" A kiss ain't just a kiss."

My lungs labored to take just one more breath. Even a small breath. I was breathing in gulps of air that would barely fill a teaspoon. The AutoDoc readouts showed that I did not have a Virus, Respiratory Infection, Lung disease of any kind…nor did I have any obstructions, or allergic responses. I…just…couldn’t…breathe.

I struggled yet again. Another teaspoon of air went in. I was getting exhausted. I had to concentrate to breathe. For the last two days I have been gasping for air. For the last six, it has been like carrying hundred pound weights through three feet deep mud. I knew that my next breath might be my last. I just wasn’t strong enough. I fought for another teaspoon of air. I took my last breath. To tired to try for one more.

And then…it went dark.

*****
I felt soft lips on mine. They felt warm. Loving. Off. Yes, off. They didn’t quite fit the shape of my lips, for one thing. For another, well, they were kind of like suckers. Not unpleasant feeling at all, but somehow they were anchored to my lips. I could feel the air being blown into my mouth. My mind was still reeling from the effort it took just to breathe.

The air felt so good. My lungs were responding to the influx of air, much like a drowning man might respond to a log, or raft... grateful without any worry or concern over where it came from. Somehow those soft lips were pumping air into me. Way back in my brain, somewhere behind the modern bits, and the first of the rodent bits, a thought was forming. That thought made it to my forebrain.

“I don’t have any crew members.”

A cascade of things poured out of the hallway of recent memory: I had no crew. I was on a Scout Ship. Somehow, I had lost all the air in the ship. My breathing had become a horrible fight against the inevitable. I had died. Suffocated. I was sure of it. Except…well, air was being pushed into my lungs now. Enough that my brain was awake. I was strong enough to open my eyes.

Dare I?

I kept them closed for another few ticks. Something was breathing for me. So either someone else is on my ship now…or I am somewhere else …maybe on a Rescue craft? I can’t be in an Auto Doc…someone would have been there to open it once my lungs were functioning. If I wanted to know what was going on, I would have to open my eyes.

I waited for my brain to agree.

I opened my eyes.

I would have screamed. Maybe I should have. I didn’t. I simply…stared.

She wasn’t human. I knew that right away. My mind picked up the little clues. No ship suit for one thing. No air in my ship …for another. Space is cold, and the inside of the ship was now as cold as space. Looking over her shoulder I could see a hole cut in the top of my ship big enough to let her in. So I knew she was about Human Size…but not shape.

Those lips pulled away…but only a few millimeters. I could instantly feel the air rushing out of my lungs to fill up the empty space around me. My eyes widened. I felt a gentle rush of fingers against the side of my head. She didn’t speak, except in my mind.

“Good. You are awake. I have to put my lips back on yours (and I felt a small giggle in my mind) to keep air in your body. My friend (I think it was a name- I think…no way I could have pronounced it, but it felt like whip cream being melted over strawberry short cake) and I (and her name was just as unpronounceable, but felt like a butterfly kiss with a hint of mint) will take you over to our ship. Yours has both a hull breach, and your beryllium sphere is shattered. It must have been a sizable meteor that punched those holes.

I looked up at the gaping hole over her shoulder in the top of my ship - she put her lips back on mine (and I heard that giggle again, probably because of the delight she read in my mind when our lips touched again). She could track my eyes, they were very close to hers. My mind burst with explanation:

“Oh, we cut that one to get to you. (And the name that felt like melted whip cream over strawberries popped into my mind) Said we didn’t have much time to save the life force inside the ship. He was right. I got a seal formed on your lips…not a moment to soon. (Again, that giggle... as she read my mind - again)

Later, onboard their ship, which was filled with air. Lovely, wonderful, gorgeous, sweet…AIR! I was able to repay them with …you won’t believe this…coffee. On their planet, which I hadn’t seen yet, no Human had, they don’t have anything resembling coffee. It would become the basis of our wealth later …as a trade item.

I say ours…because …well, we married shortly after the Holy Trinity gave us permission. (Nope. Not kidding, that is actually what they call the Elders who decide what to do, where to go, and what to trade.) I thought they liked me…she thought they just wanted someone to get them coffee. I think we are both right.

I had travelled in Space almost my whole life. I imagined what it would be like to meet the first Aliens. Humanity had never discovered an Alien Race before. Not in the three millenniums since we first left out own patch of sky. Even with the Harper-Dove Drive that created small worm holes, and allowed us to explore our own galaxy from one end to the other…nothing ever came up.

Of all the First Contact stories out there, not one ever had the beginning that our real “First Contact” with an Alien Civilization began with:

“A kiss.”