by Renee Rose
Now this.
All the experiences were new and therefore somewhat stressful, so I only half-enjoyed them.
This one I can simply repeat with the press of a button. But would it be wasteful? Would Khrys reprimand me?
The thought of his reprimand makes my inner thighs squeeze together. Maybe I want a repeat of that experience as well.
I push the button again, an unfamiliar smile curving my lips as the cycle begins again.
Khrys
Aw, veck. I lean my forehead against the door to the washroom and squeeze my throbbing member.
The way the little warrior looked at me after I stepped out of the shower still has me hard. She eyed my cock like she wanted to know how it tasted. What it felt like to ride it fast and hard. Her fear of the washtube had dropped away and desire simmered there beneath it.
I’d scented her arousal. I know the intoxicating smell now, after last night. Like warm honey cakes and Zandian starshine.
When I hear her restart the washtube, I groan. The thought of her in there, naked.
Oh stars, she’s so beautiful!
I want her. Badly.
But she’s not mine. Her purpose on Zandia is far higher than mating and breeding. She could be the answer to the Z4-A epidemic affecting the youngest generation. She is way too important. And considering how low I’ve fallen with King Zander, I can’t imagine he would grant any petition I made to mate her.
Still, I must win her trust. Bond her to me for the time being in order to bring her in willingly. Her existence up until now has been horrible. I know with certainty Zandia will be far more pleasant, but she doesn’t know that yet.
Hopefully my giving her control of her medicine and going to retrieve the flowers necessary to make more will be enough to secure her confidence in me and my species.
I squeeze my cock again, through my leggings. Down, boy. Claiming her would be wrong. I don’t want to lead her to believe I can mate her when there’s a possibility I will end up in the dungeons for this stunt.
Of course, I’m hoping that won’t be the case. I’m hoping this restores my honor, but it could go the other way.
I force myself away from the washroom door and back to the controls. It must be nearly time to land the ship.
Kailani
After my shower, I find a comb in the washroom and brush my hair. I look in the glass, feeling, for the first time in my life, beautiful. Whether it’s from pampering my body in the washtube or the way the Zandian looks at me, I can’t be sure. All I know is the feeling isn’t unpleasant.
My whole life, this body has been a Kraa tool. Something to cut and carve and change. Something to be used for their purposes.
They had no interest in my beauty. I wasn’t for breeding. I can’t compare my existence with that of breeding slaves. I don’t know whether theirs is easier or harder. All I know is sexuality was missing from my life until the previous planet rotation.
Until Khrys.
I suddenly don’t hate my body the way I used to. In fact, I almost… like it.
The ship dips and rumbles, and I realize we’re landing. I step out of the washroom to stand behind Khrys and look through the port windows. I press my face up against the glass. It’s so thick that there’s no temperature gradient from outside. The material gives the same warmth as the air around me.
“It’s dark.”
He nods. “We’re in an uninhabited field, cloaked. We’re safe. First light comes soon. You will recognize the flowers?”
“Yes.” At least I hope so.
“Then you will come with me. It may take both of us searching to find them. You should ready yourself and eat something first.”
“Oh.” My stomach lurches, and I glance back at the bench—my case is still there. “Good.” I hurry back to touch it. I’ve never had a young, but I imagine this is how a mother feels when she can’t let it out of her sight.
“It’s cold and might rain; you’ll need this jacket.” He hands me a sleek garment with a hood. “It’s weather resistant. Remember that the air is thinner than your old planet, so you may feel a little out of breath at first.”
I put the jacket beside the case while I use the ship’s washroom and eat a packet of food. “My lungs are more powerful than a regular human’s.”
He nods. “I know.”
Excitement starts to grow. Dangerous or not, this is an adventure—my first, ever. “I get to walk around without the Kraa masters.” My voice must hold extreme excitement.
“What?” He turns from the console where he’s reading some holo docs.
“I could never walk freely on the planet.” I shake my head. “I spent most of my time in a lab or sometimes in a small outdoor barred yard with the other humans for a little exercise.”
He looks pained, so I add, “But that’s behind me now.”
“Yes.” He looks away. “We need to be careful. Seke sent, —ah, I looked up all the information I could find on Dentron.” He clears his throat. “Like you mentioned, the locals are not advanced—they’re feral and kill strangers on sight. They use poisoned arrows that can travel over half a mile. But I’ve found a field far from their listed habitations. Hopefully it has the flowers.”
“Okay.” I’m about to ask who or what a Seke is, when pale streaks of light begin to wind across the alien sky, fingers of cerulean and pink against the inky black. Without warning, several suns radiate light, as if turned on by an invisible giant.
“Oh!” I gasp. “It’s beautiful—I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“You’re going to love Zandia.” His face breaks out into a smile, and it seems like he’s focusing on something very distant. “We have gorgeous sunsets. And there’s a waterfall with a crystal grotto. When the lights shine, it’s just…” he shakes his head, seemingly at a loss for words. “The crystals are powerful and healing—at least to my species. But I think certain humans also find them so.”
“I’d like to see a waterfall.”
“You will.”
“Beings can just go there, to see it? Do you need permission?” I’m trying to understand.
“It’s open to all Zandians.”
“Could I go with you? Will you take me there when we arrive? I would love to see it.”
His smile dips. “I will take you there as soon as I can. Right now let’s focus on the mission.” He gets up and retrieves something from a cabinet. Rips open a packet.
My senses are on high alert as I scent the tang of medicinal alcohol, the refined blend that is used to ensure human inoculation kits are germ-free. Before I recognize my actions, I’ve snarled out a low growl and stand in attack mode, heart pounding.
“What are you doing?” My voice is fierce even as adrenaline makes me sick with anxiety. “What’s in your hand?”
The thing, long and slim, glints in the light. I back up.
“Stars, Kailani.” He looks at me with concern. I note that he, too, now stands at attention, ready to parry or attack. “It’s an inoculation for you. To protect against bacterial infections you could get on the planet. There’s a kind of insect here that carried a bacterium which—” He breaks off when I start to hyperventilate.
“No.” I shake my head vigorously. I may be enhanced, but my capability for fear seems to only be heightened. The last needle that slid under my skin was to prepare me for a procedure that comes back to me in nightmares. I breathe faster.
“Veck.” He puts the needle down.
The clink it makes on the surface of his console makes me shudder in fresh horror as the memories of the Kraa flash up in full color. A strange, staccato sound fills the space ship. I realize it’s me—hiccuping for air. I sit and wrap my arms around myself, my chest heaving.
Khrys appears in front of me. “Kailani!” He lifts me and pulls me into his arms. “Easy, little warrior.” He touches my pulse, my neck, my face. “You’re okay. Everything is all right.”
I can’t stop the violent shaking in my limbs. “No,” I contradict him.<
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“Speak to me. What’s wrong?”
I suck in air. The world is full of static. The feel of his warm hands grounds me, and I swim back to reality. I tremble and lean into his body, trying to forget every last image in my mind.
After a few seconds, I force myself to take a slow breath. “I’m fine now.” Although the feel of his body is fortifying, I sit up straight. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“We can’t get those flowers until you do.” His voice is kind but firm. “I lost you for a moment. I need to understand what happened.”
His arms are gentle around me as I process my emotions. I need those flowers; therefore, I must comply with his request. If I think of it in a dispassionate way I can tell him.
“Every inoculation I’ve ever received was a muscular numbing agent.” I don’t look at his face. Instead, I stare out at the flickers of color outside the port window. “The Kraa often did enhancements on me while I was paraylzed but not asleep. They didn't care if I felt pain because they needed me to be alert, so they could check my brain activity to see if their procedures were successful. If I’d been a good slave recently, they might add a bit of a numbing agent, but not much.”
I bite my lip. “When I saw the needle, it brought me right back there. My mind knew it was different, but my body didn’t.” My voice breaks. The panic grows again, so I take a deep breath, then another.
“I did not know.” His voice seems full of pain. “I am sorry.”
I point across the room. “I’m strong enough. I can withstand any human virus, anyway. I don’t need it.” I blink. “Please, put it out of my sight. I’ll be fine on the planet. It was a momentary panic. That is all.”
“Kailani.” He sighs. “The bacteria on this planet are different from a virus. They can still make you very ill. I’m immune to it, but if I brought it back, I could kill you.”
Chapter 6
Khrys
Veck. This complication, unexpected and intense, could prevent us from getting her flower supply before I need to get her back to Zandia. This detour alone—which may take over a solar rotation, will waste precious time in which the halflings back on Zandia get sicker. We simply don’t have time to wait even more time for her to master her panic.
But beyond that, seeing her in such distress affects me physically. Now I understand why they say humans bring out emotions in my normally stoic species. The need for me to protect her from her pain overwhelms me.
I sit on the bench and pull her down onto my lap.
“You’re stronger than you think.” I turn her, so I can look into her face. “You can do this.”
“I—I really don’t think I can.” She shakes her head. Her whole demeanor is downcast and tense.
“You’ve survived this long.” I touch her cheek. “I know you can handle one inoculation more because you’re strong. You helped us escape. You’re brilliant. You’ve got perseverance and bravery.”
She blinks, her eyes wide. “Wow. Do you really mean those things?”
“Has no being told you this before?” I curse the universe for putting this incredible human into such a horrible situation.
“I’m appreciated by the Kraa for my functionality. Not for myself.” She frowns. “I am a tool to them. I just inconveniently happen to be alive with thoughts and feelings.”
If I could, I’d kill every last Kraa that exists just to give her a sense of closure. “I meant every word.” I pause and choose my next words with care. “What if you sit here, just like this, and I give you the inoculation? You can tell me when to do it. Or you could even give it to yourself.”
She shivers but doesn’t say no. She looks again to the window, and I know what she’s thinking.
“The weather is going to turn. If we don’t get the flowers soon, the rains will come and ruin the pollen for this season. We have a very short window of opportunity.”
She sighs and looks back at me. “All right. You do it.”
“Good.” I fetch the device from the console.
Her whole body goes still as I take her back into my arms.
“I can’t look.” She clears her throat and taps her food rapidly on the smooth floor of the cabin.
“I’m readying it now. It will make a noise, and you’ll smell the alcohol, but I won’t touch it to your skin until you say yes.”
I flip the protective cap up, and she flinches, hard, so hard her whole body jerks into mine with force.
I steady her. “It won’t hurt—not even for a human. When I receive inoculations, I feel the briefest pin prick, and a cold sensation as the medicine goes into the tissue. It will only take a millisecond.”
“All right.” She nods and squeezes her eyes shut. She takes a deep breath. “Do it.”
In a flash, I press the sleek cylinder to her arm and press the trigger. There’s a short click, and it’s done.
She sits so still, I can’t tell if she’s passed out or not. Then she says, “Is that all?”
I put the spent device behind me. “All over.”
“That was it?” She opens her eyes. Touches her arm. “It doesn’t hurt.” She looks up at me, and her eyes fill with tears. “You didn’t lie.” She gulps. “I’m all right. There’s no surgery.”
Suddenly, she burst into sobs, her shoulders heaving with cries so deep and long that I grab her again.
“I can’t believe I’m not in that cell,” she sniffs between jerks of her body. “Owned by the Kraa. It’s all I’ve wanted for so long, and now that I’m out…” She squeezes herself against me, like she’s trying to merge with my skin. “I don’t even know how to do this. To live in a new environment.”
“You’ll figure it out.” I stroke her hair. “You don’t need to do it all at once.”
“I can’t go back into captivity and have them experiment on me whenever they want. I just can’t. The possibility that I could—it’s almost worse than being free. It’s so terrifying.”
“You’re safe now.” I hold her until she cries it out.
The suns rise higher in the sky, and dual beams of light stream in from opposite directions, casting an intricate shadow pattern across our bodies.
She looks up at me and swipes a hand across her eyes. There’s peace there and a new determination. She is back in charge of herself again.
“I’m ready. Tell me what I need to do.”
Kailani
“Stay ten paces behind me,” he whispers. “Walk in my footsteps.”
“Got it.” I’m much shorter than he is, but my stride is long because I use my enhanced muscles to leap from spot to spot where he’s crushed down the crispy waist-high grasses with his large boots.
“Your breathing okay?” He keeps the same pace as the sky gradually picks up more color, reds shooting through the original blue and pink. There are clouds, too, the kind that burst with moisture. So far it’s been dry, which is good news. We can get the flowers while they’re intact.
“Fine. Yes.” It took a few minutes of deep gulps of air, but my strong lungs adjusted even faster than his Zandian ones.
“I’m great.” The cold air on my cheeks exhilarates me. Even the thoughts of dangerous locals can’t dampen my boundless joy at just walking around without Kraa slave masters watching my every move. And having mastered that inoculation with his help? It made me feel invincible. I did a thing that was in my worst nightmares—and I survived.
“I’ve downloaded an ag map of the territory onto my holo. We’ll walk a mile due Southeast, and we should hit a field where we might find flowers.” He turns to look at me.
“How did you get such a map?” I leap across a boggy patch of grass, black mud seeping up between thick gray roots.
“Zandians have information about many planets in the galaxies.” His shoulders seem stiff. I feel like his voice is different from before, almost like he’s hiding something from me.
Suddenly, I hear something. On instinct, I grab his sleeve. “Footsteps to the left. Get down.”
> I immediately dive and nestle into the grass. He’s beside me in a flash, his head inches from mine. It’s not the time or place, but the warmth from his body and his lips so close remind me of what we did on the ship, when he spanked me and brought me pleasure.
“You heard that even before I did.” His voice holds grudging admiration. “Good work.”
“Cochlear surgery when I was eight solar cycles. I can’t tell if it’s sentients or animals.” I suppress my surge of pride at his praise. Speaking of the surgery doesn’t bring quite the rush of horror as usual—whether it’s his presence or the fact that I was able to take a vaccine voluntarily, I’m more in control of my emotions.
He cocks his head. “I think they’re four-legged. I’m going to check. Stay down.” He hovers his hand over my back and gets into a quick crouch, so nimbly that I raise my eyebrows. He peers above the tall grasses. “It’s a kind of antlex, a herd of ten.”
He examines the horizon in all directions. “There are a few herds around us. They should be harmless—herbivores. Placid.”
He gets up and reaches a hand down for me.
“Thank you.” I smile as I stand and look around. I’ve never seen a wild animal before. The grazing beasts are striped brown and white, colors that blend into the landscape. Their horns are impossibly curled, corkscrew twists that glint amber in the light. They’re spectacular to me. “We’re safe.”
“It seems so,” he says, but frowns. He examines the distance again and blinks. “I don’t see anything else.” He hesitates, as if something is bothering him. He looks up at the sky, where the previous gorgeous pinks and oranges have been obscured by thick gray clouds, long like blankets. “Let’s keep going before the weather changes.”
He’s moving fast again, almost jogging, and despite my much shorter legs, I keep up effortlessly, thanks to years of muscle fiber enhancement drug therapy.
In a minute, we near a small patch of scraggly trees, almost like a wind-line, and beyond that is a vast field of flowers. A few of them, smaller but no less gorgeous, grow amongst the trees. All of the flowers are blue, but my eyes zero in on the ones that I remember: These are the ones I need—I recognize them.