by Elin Wyn
Jeline watched as Kogav seemed to freeze in surprise when his eyes finally landed on Stephine Willovitch.
And sure, Jeline knew that her crewmate couldn’t have looked like much, not when she was scowling off to the side like that and glaring everyone down. Still, despite the woman’s complete disregard of manners, Willovitch was still the best that Jeline had ever worked with – engineer, pilot, or otherwise.
“She goes by Willovitch,” Jeline introduced him from afar, knowing better than to tell a stranger to call her Stephine. “She’s from one of our Mars’ colonies.”
“Mars?” Kogav repeated, frowning as he looked back at her. “Is that a planet? I thought you were all from Earth?”
Jeline made a sympathetic face at his confusion. She knew that, because of how his crew had marveled at her captain when she’d explained that their crew was from just one planet – Earth – and on an exploration mission to benefit their single species: humankind.
“Just one?” Kogav had piped up among his crew. It was what had made Jeline first notice him, and his purple eyes.
“Can’t imagine the kind of peace such unifying origins must bring you,” another had grunted. Jeline could remember thinking, If only.
Earth’s history had always been a self-defeating one; from the World Wars to the recent near nuclear dystopia between Earth and her colonies. It was only because of the jump gates that they’d found on Pluto’s outskirts – a series of three ‘portals’ that literally jumped any and all ships sent through into deep space and, ultimately, toward a new set of jump gates – that’d finally unified them all as one force.
So for a band of aliens to judge Earth’s progress from the sidelines and consider their progress an easy feat? Well, that hadn’t exactly sat well with Jeline.
Although, to be fair, that was before the captain had shared that Kogav’s crew had only recently united as one people under something that they’d named the Eiztar Alliance.
And, not to mention, before she’d made a speech about their next step.
“Now that you can all hear me,” Captain Taryn had called out over them. “It’s time to discuss just what it is we’re still doing here!”
‘Here’ being Peshdushdar, a barren planet covered in sand and rocks that was foreign to both of their crews, but home to a separate alien race that Kogav’s crew knew, yet held no amount of love for: the Thagzars, a despised alien race that the captain had only described as “snake-like.”
And, though no one had said anything, Jeline suspected it was that hate that had resulted in the smoking pile of scaly corpses just a few feet away.
“The Eiztar originally came here to steal a virus,” the captain had continued, gesturing to Kogav and his crew. “One that has been infecting their women, and—”
“And it is up to us,” the strong baritone of Kogav’s captain had interrupted. “To transport the virus so that a cure may be created from the strain.”
And while that had explained what the ‘Eiztars’ were doing on Peshdushdar, Jeline knew that her own crew’s crash landing had been nothing short of a last ditch effort to avoid the meteor shower that their latest jump gate had thrown them into.
“W-we’ve entered a meteor storm, Captain.”
Jeline shook her head at the memory. To her, it had happened a mere hour ago, and she could still feel the ship shaking underneath her feet, sending a tremble into her hands as she’d tried to regain control. As the pilot, it was up to her more than anyone else to get them to safety.
There just hadn’t been any time.
“Everyone get into a pod! Now!”
Jeline knew that Captain Taryn was a good pilot – hell, it’s the position she’d held when she’d first joined the scout fleet, back before she’d been promoted. She could fly a ship, no question; but that still hadn’t meant that Jeline had been willing to abandon her to it.
“How about you follow my orders and set an example?”
Out of options and out of time, Jeline had grabbed Sherre by the arm and taken her to the pods. “Once the door closes, press this,” she’d told her. “It’ll activate torpor sleep.”
Jeline had never been under the effects of the infamous sleep before, but she knew the studies and figures behind the technology all too well. It would keep them safe.
And it had.
After passing out from the fumes, the next thing Jeline had woken up to was the captain yanking her out of the pod.
Thrown into a breathable atmosphere with harsh rays and a blinding sun, it didn’t take her long at all to figure out that time must’ve passed; a fear that was only confirmed when she had properly stepped out of her pod and seen the five men standing guard around them.
“Captain,” Jeline had tried to say, but her face was still numb from the sleep, and her mouth wasn’t working right.
“You’ve been in your pod for two days,” the captain had said quickly. “Come on, we’ve got to evacuate!”
And that was Jeline’s first introduction to Kogav and his crew. She hadn’t even known who their captain was – or if they even had any sense of status – until the tall alien who’d been closely following Captain Taryn around had spoken up.
“We all know the coordinates to the lab,” the man had continued casually, his stance confident as his own crew had nodded along. “It is where we must go,” he ended with a sharp nod.
“Ladies,” Taryn crossed her arms, sending a final glance to the man at her side. “We’ve got a planet in need, and an enemy who thinks that we’re going to drive in a straight line.”
Jeline rolled her eyes and grinned in spite of herself, knowing exactly which mission she’d been talking about. As a scout crew, they had never seen much combat (or any, really), but evasive action was certainly needed for the occasional asteroid or black hole.
Or meteor shower.
Clenching her jaw, Jeline crossed her arms and looked away from Taryn. She could still hear Medic Lyra’s scream when they’d found themselves in the thick of it.
“Pair off into five groups of two,” Captain Taryn had ordered. “Splitting up will help our chances of avoiding capture. And I’ll see you,” she’d bowed her head to them, “at the finish line.”
Jeline had huffed a laugh under her breath. The captain always did have a flair for the dramatics, but she supposed it was a trait that any scout captain would need to keep the job interesting.
She could only imagine what Captain Taryn had seen in the two days that she’d been awake and alone, cut off from her unconscious crew in their pods.
“Jeline?”
Blinking up at Kogav, Jeline mentally shook herself and forced a smile. “We are all from Earth,” she agreed. “But Earth overpopulated a few centuries ago, and we colonized some of the surrounding planets to give ourselves more breathing room. The captain is from Mars, too, actually.”
“Ah,” Kogav nodded, but Jeline couldn’t help but notice that his bright eyes seemed to flatten at the news. Shrugging, he said, “Like the Thagzars.”
Jeline immediately shook her head, “We’re nothing like them.” Nothing like the aggressive alien race that had enslaved Kogav’s planet, and every one of his crewmate’s home worlds as well.
It was how their planets had known of one another’s existence from star system to star system, and why the Eiztars had ultimately been able to band together in a fight against the Thagzars. According to the captain, it had been a victory for their planets, and the Thagzars had been forced to flee to barren planets like this one.
And yet, here the Eiztar were on one of those Thagzar planets, hunting down a virus that’d been engineered against them.
To Jeline, it made the whole thing sound like the war was far from over.
“Our star system is unique,” Kogav shrugged, oblivious. “The norm seems to be one hospitable planet per galaxy, it would seem. That’s why the Thagzars enslaved our home worlds – it was only from our five planets that they could make a profit without starting from scratch l
ike you and yours. Not to mention,” he said, crossing his arms. “You ‘humans’ do not seem like the type to enslave an entire race for selfish gains.”
If only.
“We aren’t,” Jeline nodded firmly, not about to bother him with the details. “We’d never.”
Kogav huffed and shook his head, muttering under his breath, “Then you are far better than my people, as well.” Jeline wasn’t sure how to respond to that (or if he’d really even meant for her to hear it), but then he sighed, and flashed her another smile. “So, Earth. Do you have winter there?”
It felt odd to have an alien ask about snow while they were standing on a desert planet with scorching temperatures. “We—”
“Jeline!”
Jeline and Kogav both looked up at the voice. It was Captain Taryn, jogging over to them with Kogav’s own captain hot on her heels.
“Captain,” Jeline smiled, extending a hand to her.
“Pilot,” Taryn grinned in kind, accepting Jeline’s hand once she was close enough. “I see you’re already making friends,” she added, slapping Jeline’s shoulder as she looked Kogav up and down. Turning to the Eiztar captain at her back, she whispered loudly, “A little young, isn’t he?”
“Youngest in my crew, ma’am,” Kogav winked, flashing his pointed fangs.
“And yet, also the biggest pain,” his captain muttered, moving to stand beside Taryn as he slipped a hand around her waist.
Jeline raised an eyebrow at the display, but her captain didn’t protest, so she wasn’t about to say anything about it, either. Instead, she nodded at the man and introduced herself. “I’m Jeline Montias,” she said, “The pilot.”
“Ah, yes,” he replied smoothly. Jeline could only stare as his eyes flashed in the sunlight, and she realized with a start that he had golden irises. Was everyone in Kogav’s crew blessed with unique eyes?
“Um, yeah,” she nodded hesitantly, frowning as he let his reply hang and didn’t say anything else. It was only when she saw Kogav’s hand move out of the corner of her eye that she noticed that he and the captain were silently signing to one another.
“Oi,” Captain Taryn grumbled, the usual bite gone from her voice as she gently nudged the alien in the side. “We didn’t pass out these communication tabs so that you two could keep talking in a secret language,” she huffed, motioning to her left ear.
Jeline had nearly forgotten that she was wearing one, they were so lightweight, and found herself flexing her jaw to feel the cool plastic against her ear. Unlike the comms that the academy handed out, the Eiztar communication tabs were comfortably fitted and efficiently slim. Not to mention, they contained the translation technology to convert whatever languages the five different aliens spoke to English.
“Sorry,” the captain apologized. “I was merely communicating in Kogav’s home language.”
“Your planet didn’t develop a verbal language?” Jeline blurted, turning to Kogav. It was the first that she’d heard of it.
“I’m sure if we’d been allowed to talk, we would have,” he said lightly, though his smile was cold. “But the Thagzars—”
“Such a rich history could not be appreciated if you were to tell it here,” his captain said with a soft look, cutting him off gently. “Wait for more private conditions. We’ll be taking off soon.”
“Oh, right. Jeline,” Taryn said, crossing her arms. “I’m sure you’ve already heard, but this is Kanthi. He’s the captain of the Eiztar crew—”
“And the only alien actually from Eiztar,” he cut in with a smile. “And where are you from, Jeline?”
At Jeline’s confused look, Captain Taryn replied for her. “She’s from a Moon colony.” Then, glancing at Jeline, she supplied, “I may have mentioned that I’m from Mars. He was curious about everyone else.”
Jeline didn’t reply. She was watching Kogav, biting her lip as she waited for him to blow up at the name of another colonized planet. It was why she hadn’t mentioned it herself.
But he didn’t even drop his smile.
“Pleasure to meet you, Jeline,” Kanthi said with a small dip of his head.
“Oh, are we bowing now?” Kogav grinned. “Should I go get Zaddik? Everyone bows on his planet,” he added to Jeline.
She couldn’t say that she was all that surprised – she knew that even the original presidents of what used to be America bowed to one another, and they were a democracy based on equal status. Zaddik probably bowed out of the same traditional mindset that they had once had.
“Talk about annoying, right?” Kogav laughed.
Jeline doubted that the Thagzars had ever afforded Zaddik’s people any respect and bowed to them, especially if they hadn’t even let Kogav’s people speak. “Not really,” she said with a shrug.
“Oh, I see Lyra. Hey! Medic!” Captain Taryn shouted, waving an arm. She started to move toward her, but then paused. “Jeline,” she said, “Get ready to split up. We’re flying our pod back to their landing sight, and riding in their pods from there.” Brushing past her, she muttered, “Their pod ships are much more comfortable, trust me.”
But Jeline wasn’t concerned about ‘comfort.’ No, she was worried about the clueless engineer at her side who’d admitted that he’d never really flown a ship before, but had still volunteered to pilot his pod ship.
The ship that they’d be taking into space, apparently.
“So,” Jeline rushed, her mind in a whirl as she tried to imagine just how little experience Kogav really had. “Pilot simulations. Have you ever tried any?” At the academy, even non-pilot crewmembers were required to reach an intermediate level of flight.
From the way that he frowned, Jeline wondered for a moment if the communication tab over his ear had mistranslated. She hadn’t really had any issues with hers so far – at least, not that she knew of. “We don’t have ‘simulations’ on my planet,” he finally shrugged. “But I can fly a pod, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Knowing how to pilot a pod ship wasn’t normally such a cause for concern, especially since the small space crafts could practically fly themselves under an autopilot armed with a set of destination coordinates. But after the captain had barely avoided crashing it into Peshdushdar’s surface only to lose it to the angry Thagzar locals, a handful of pod ships had suddenly become their only option for Jeline’s crew to fly back to Earth.
Though, first they had to help the Eiztars get their virus to a lab, apparently.
“I could always pilot your pod,” Jeline offered hopefully. “I mean, not that I think you couldn’t, or—” she shook her head, accidentally flicking her eyes up to meet Kogav’s face and look into his eyes again. They were a deep amethyst now, and maybe it was just the heat doing things to her brain, but she could’ve sworn that the sight of them was making her heart jump into her throat. She wanted to keep looking – for science, of course.
On the other hand, she didn’t know his culture’s stance on looking someone directly in the eye, and the last thing she wanted to do was offend him. Glancing away, she fluffed her red hair over her shoulders in an attempt to hide her flushed face and tucked her chin against her chest.
“You think you could?” Kogav asked lightly, and she could only blush harder as he reached out a gentle hand to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
“I—”
“All right, men!” Kanthi suddenly shouted, and Jeline jerked her head to see where he was calling from.
“C’mon,” Kogav grinned, grabbing one of her hands as he started jogging toward his captain. Jeline followed blindly, her sweating palms and beating heart distracting her as she tried to keep up.
“You have the toxin!” Kanthi continued as everyone else started moving toward him. He was standing next to the pods from Jeline’s ship, and she realized for the first time just how high the pods were. When she’d first stepped out of it, the Eiztars had helped her down in a dizzying blur. “Now let’s see about getting the antidote into the hands of our people!”
/>
“What is that?” Jeline whispered, pointing as she frowned at the tall structure. It looked like the pods were strapped to it.
“Oh, right,” Kogav said. “The Thagzars were trying to make off with the pods while we were distracted with salvaging your mother ship. Luckily that captain of yours noticed them making off with you, and we stopped them in their tracks. Lost your ship, though.”
That pile of corpses definitely belonged to Thagzar soldiers, then.
“So, how do we get back up?” Jeline wondered aloud, glancing around for a ladder or something.
“Well here, I’ll—”
“Let me give you a boost.”
Jeline turned around at the gruff suggestion to see Zaddik, Kogav’s older crewmember, holding out a hand to Sherre. “Thanks,” the younger woman said. “But, how will you get up there if I’m not here to give you a boost…?”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Kogav laughed, and he slapped a hand on Zaddik’s back. The man only glared in reply, and Jeline was surprised (and, quite honestly, relieved) to see that he had a pair of dull blue eyes. “Zaddik is from a planet where the nearest ship is about a mile above ground,” Kogav said, and Jeline watched as he gave a mock bow to Zaddik.
She considered interrupting, but as she took a step forward, she noticed Kogav’s hands. He was signing again.
“That’s amazing,” Sherre said in awe, oblivious to the silent conversation that they were holding in front of her. “It’s so high.”
Dropping his hand with a scowl and a grunt, Zaddik finally turned away, and Kogav looked back triumphantly at Jeline. She didn’t know why, but she had the feeling that he’d been making fun of the older man.
“Give me your hand,” Kogav said with a wink, “And I’ll see you safely to the top.”
Blushing all over again, Jeline ignored the look that Sherre was sending her way and hesitantly stepped toward Kogav’s outstretched arm.
She didn’t expect him to wrap it around her waist.
“Kogav—” she tried, but they were already off. Secured in his half-embrace while he used his other hand to pull them upward, Jeline threw her arms around his neck and held on for dear life. She’d always been bad with heights without a ship between her and the ground (and, preferably, a set of pilot controls), but she wasn’t about to admit that to Kogav.