by Keira Conrad
What did she want from him? He had a good idea. Information. Assistance. An ally. It's what he would want in the same situation. They were too small to mount an adequate defense against the Obeday, and he knew they realized it after that morning’s attack. He let his imagination run wild as he gazed at her. Perhaps together they could overpower their enemies. Those in his village would be hard to convince, of course, until they realized they could once again feel a woman moving underneath them.
He knew he should announce his presence, but he was enjoying himself too much. Her every reaction was perfection, and it stirred something deep within him. Her beauty, her strength, her bravery, her brains. Every facet of her combined to create the perfect mother for his child. A child placed in her belly would be fierce. It would carry on the line of his people with distinction.
Her stern tone shattered the silence of his reverie. "Have you had enough of an eyeful yet?" She was staring right at him. And she didn't look amused.
9
"You shot me," he said it like it was an excuse.
“It was an accident,” she said. “Besides, that doesn't mean you get to stalk me from the shadows. It’s a little creepy."
"Certainly, you can understand my instinct to approach you a little more carefully this time." He stepped out of the brush with his hands raised in appeasement.
"It wasn't me, you know." Callie said as she slid the pack from her back. "My friend shot you. She didn't mean it, and she feels horrible about it. She was scared out of her mind. She doesn't handle stress well. She spends most of her time with plants." She reached into her pack and rummaged for the medical supplies. "How do you do it, by the way?"
"Do what?" he asks.
"You speak perfect English." She looked up at him from her crouch. "How do you do that?"
"My people speak nearly every language in the galaxy." It was a declaration, not an explanation, but she didn't blame him for withholding information. She wasn't planning on disclosing every sensitive detail of her current situation, either. "We are familiar with your people and your customs."
Still, she had to try to learn more. "There are more of you?" she asked.
"There are more," he confirmed.
“How many?”
“Enough.” His expression gave nothing away. It was like pulling teeth.
"Our scientists thought this planet was uninhabited. How’s that for a world-class miscalculation?"
"We have lived here for hundreds of years. Your scientists were incorrect." He remained stony faced.
"They certainly were. About lots of things. I know that now." She rose to her feet and handed him the medical supplies. "I brought these for you—“
She looked at his torso and the words caught in her mouth. There had been a gaping entry wound on his abdomen hours earlier where Flora had shot him. She was certain of it, but there was no sign of injury now. Not even a scar. His skin was perfectly smooth and stretched tightly over his muscles. It was amazing.
"I don't think I'll be needing them." He looked down at his side and ran his hand over his perfectly sculpted side.
She was having trouble processing what she was seeing. "How did you—"
"You have a lot of questions," he interrupted.
"And you don't have many answers." Drawing information from him was more difficult than she imagined it would be. But she had never quit at anything in her life just because it was hard, and she certainly wasn't about to start now.
"Look, I’m just going to cut to the chase. We mean you no harm," she said. The day was taking its toll and she was suddenly tired. She lowered herself onto a nearby rock. It felt so damn good to sit down. "I want to make that clear. Besides, you saw how we can barely defend ourselves. We're in no position to be a danger to you."
"Things are not always as they seem," he said. "If strangers from the stars arrived on your planet, would you welcome them without reservation and share all your knowledge with them?"
He had a point, Callie realized. She was taking things way too fast. They hadn’t even been property introduced. "I wouldn't," she said with a nod of her head. "Fair enough. Let's start over and take things slowly. I'm Callie." She wasn't sure of the intergalactic greeting protocol, so she offered him a friendly wave from her perch on the rock.
"I am Vaka." He stared at her with something approaching open lust. But that couldn't be right. She was sweaty, dirty, exhausted, and her hair felt like a bird’s nest. There’s no way he could be horny for her. Still, she was pretty sure she recognized the head-to-toe assessment he was giving her. She'd experienced it from time to time back on Earth.
"Why are you here, Callie?" he asked. "How long are you here for?"
The sound of her name on his lips sent a little shiver through her, but the reality of his question snapped her out of it quickly. Now it was Callie's turn to be hesitant to share. “To colonize your planet’’ and “forever’’ seemed like risky responses to his questions. There was little chance of his discovering their precious cargo so she didn't see the harm in fudging the details a little.
"We're here to explore," she said. "Scientists back on Earth, our home planet, identified other planets that could support life, and then they asked for volunteers willing to travel to them for research. Our ship was one of seven that were launched."
"Can you call your people on Earth for help?" He seemed genuinely interested in helping her troubleshoot their problem. His kindness triggered her guilt.
"I wish we could. But they're too far away. We can send messages, but it takes months to reach them. And their response takes just as long." She rubbed the back of her neck. "That, of course, was how things worked before the attack this morning. I have no idea what our comms capabilities are at the present moment."
"Will they send help for you?" She couldn’t read his expression.
"No. That’s not an option,” she said. “It took us years to get here, and we knew when we volunteered that we would be on our own."
"Callie, your people are too fragile for Karilius.” He said it so gently, like the admission pained him. “They will not survive here long."
No shit, she thought. She had to fight back the irrational urge to laugh. The odds were good she was going to die on this inhospitable rock.
"Unfortunately, going home isn't much of an option, considering how our ship was toasted this morning," she said.
"The Obeday are to be feared. You should have taken more care to hide from them."
"Is that who attacked us?” Now she was getting somewhere. This was the kind of information she needed. The kind that would give them a fighting chance. “What can you tell me about them?"
"They are the most cunning enemy my people have ever encountered.” He looked away as he spoke and settled himself on a fallen log. His bravado faded before her eyes, and she could tell the admission pained him. It made her more anxious about their situation on this planet.
“Are they part of the native population?” she asked.
He shook his head. An emphatic no. “They arrived here decades ago. They landed one day, just as your people did, and claimed they needed our help. We were naive then and welcomed them with open arms."
She didn’t like where this story was going. No wonder his people had kept their distance since her ship had landed. Then she thought of the true purpose of their mission, and she could no longer meet his eyes. She had to look away.
Vaka’s voice swelled as he recounted the wrongs done to his people. "They unleashed a sickness that wiped many of our kind. They turned on the rest of us while we were weak. The things they did after, especially to our women, were unspeakable..." His handsome face distorted in anger as he spoke. His blue eyes turned dark and icy. His lips twisted into a grimace. His perfect jawline clenched. He turned to Callie.
"Go back to your people, little bird. There is nothing for you here." He turned and stormed away.
10
"Wait. Wait!" She sprang from her seated position and ran after hi
m. "You don't even know what we want. Please, just hear me out?" She couldn't let him get away. She wouldn’t go back to the ship empty-handed. She wouldn’t be able to face her crewmates if she let their best chance at survival get away.
She was exhausted and stressed and she made it about ten strides before her toe caught a tree root and she tumbled to the ground. She landed flat on her stomach and the air was knocked from her lungs. She struggled for breath.
Vaka heard her fall. She knew he did. He slowed and he looked over his shoulder at her. She thought she saw a tenderness there, but it could have been her imagination. He stopped with his hands on his hips, contemplating his next move. Callie silently prayed he’d turn around and return.
He did. At her side in an instant, he reached down and grasped her upper arm. Just like it had on the battlefield, the intensity of his touch took her by surprise. Little zings of pleasure ricocheted through her body when his fingers kissed her skin. On Earth, a man’s touch had never triggered such a response in her. Her body sang, but her mind quickly took over. It was crazy to indulge in such trivial attraction with an alien while her crewmates were struggling for survival.
Her legs were like jelly, but she managed to scramble to her feet with his assistance. She looked around for somewhere to rest and he guided her to a downed tree. She leaned against the giant log and struggled with how to proceed.
"We need you," Callie said. There was no point in hiding their desperation from him.
"Why would we help you?" His eyes searched her face.
"There has to be something we could offer you in return,” she said. “We have technology, weapons, medicine…” Her voice trailed off. He was giving her that look again. The I'm-imagining-doing-sinful-things-to-your-naked-body one. Callie had learned that horny men make crazy decisions, but he couldn’t really be trying to trade protection for Earth-girl pussy. She knew it was crazy, but the thought gave her a little thrill.
He waved his hand dismissively. "I am not interested in technology, weapons, or medicine.” He stepped closer, into her personal space, and it was impossible to ignore the fact that this huge, nearly-naked creature was the most perfect physical specimen she’d ever seen. He was all sculpted muscle, tan skin, and a superhero jaw line. His startlingly blue eyes raced over her body. He reached out to touch her face but stopped millimeters from her skin. His fingertips hovered there and he slowly traced the curves of her jaw, her neck, and her breast before clenching his fist and drawing it back to his side. His breath was labored. “You would not trade what I long for more than anything."
“You hold all the cards. Tell me what you want." He'd probably be surprised at what she'd do to survive. She’d had disappointing sex with average men plenty of times back on Earth, and none of them had promised to save her life. Vaka was already ahead of the pack.
"Honesty would be a good place to start," he said as he took a step back. How very shrewd of him, she thought. He wanted her, but he clearly wasn’t a mindless slave to his desire. Part of her wanted to know him better. To discover all his many complications and contradictions.
She decided to give him as much honesty as she could. "We're never leaving here," she said. "It was always a one-way mission. The ship was never equipped for a return trip. Getting blasted all to hell this morning just made it official."
He paced back and forth and stroked his chin as he considered her answer. She hoped her answer satisfied him or things could get complicated quickly.
He had more questions.
"Why did your leaders send so many women with so few men with guns to protect them?" he asked.
The all-women colonist crew hadn’t escaped his notice. She wondered how long he had been watching them. This was trickier to answer. She decided to start with the science.
"There are a lot of reasons to have an all-female crew for prolonged space travel."
He tilted his head and narrowed his eyes.
"For example," Cassie probed the depths of her memory for the research. "Women are smaller than men. Every pound of weight matters on such a long journey. And women need less oxygen and food, and they produce less waste." He didn't look convinced, so she kept going. "Also, for some strange reason, men experience losses in hearing and sight during extended space voyages. Women don't. That's a pretty big deal when you're sending people to explore."
There were other reasons the colonists were all women. Women tended to have better interpersonal skills, which were essential in a long-term habitation mission like theirs. Also, when planning to colonize another planet, women are a little more essential in the reproductive process. It was easier to haul a frozen sperm bank across the galaxy instead of living, breathing males. But Callie had no plan of disclosing those tidbits until absolutely necessary. He’d be a fool to help people trying to colonize his planet, and she was certain he was no fool.
"What kind of leaders send defenseless women with so few men with weapons to protect them?" he asked. The very idea seemed to trouble him.
"Ones who thought your planet was abandoned. And ones who were desperate. Things aren't so great on my home planet right now." The admission stung Callie more than she thought it would. Tears welled in her eyes.
Vaka turned his head to the side, brushed back the hair above his ear, and exposed a metal fragment embedded in his head.
"Now I have some honesty for you.” He tapped the small implant. “This is how I speak and understand your language along with many others."
Callie leaned in for a closer look. The small silver disc was stamped onto his skin like a rivet. She wondered if it interfaced with his ear or his brain. Probably the latter. If that was the case, it meant their technology was more advanced than her own. She reached out and touched the site of the implant. She was curious about his language device, but she also wanted to feel the warm pleasure that coursed through her whenever they touched.
He felt it too. She could tell by the way his breath grew ragged and his skin grew flushed. She had never aroused a man like this before. She knew she was plain. Average height, average weight. In college, a guy had rated her a solid five. She wasn't even mad when she overheard him. It's what she would have rated herself. But Vaka? He looked at her like she was a ten. It was thrilling to be wanted by someone so objectively handsome himself. But this was neither the time nor place, and she chided herself for indulging in such selfish thoughts while they were in such a dire situation. It was time to get back to business.
"This is amazing technology. It must have taken a long time to develop it?" She drew her hand from his head and stepped back.
"It was not developed by my people. It was thrust upon us and we had no choice in its use." His tone had turned cold. Why did she always say the wrong thing?
"I understand why you're wary of strangers." She’d have to choose her words carefully. "I hope you understand that we are not a threat to you. We are weak, trapped, barely surviving. There has to be some sort of an agreement we could come to."
A deep sigh escaped his lips. "It is not my decision to make." Disappointment flooded through Callie. She didn't want to negotiate with anyone other than Vaka.
"Will you take me to your leader? Or whoever makes the final call."
His silence was deafening. Callie held her breath and prayed as he considered his options. She didn’t know what she would do if he said no.
"I will take you to my people," he said. He led the way, and she followed.
11
Callie was eager to meet Vaka’s people and hammer out some sort of arrangement, but part of her wished it had taken just a little but longer to find him. She’d been too frantic to look around the first time she’d been in the woods, and she enjoyed getting to explore their new home.
It resembled Earth more than she expected, but it was as if someone cranked up the intensity by thirty percent. The giant trees in this forest dwarfed the redwoods she read about in California. Here, the trunks were wider and they stood far taller. Their greenery was more
vibrant than anything she had encountered in nature before, and their trunks were as smooth as glass.
There were plants sprouting from the ground that reminded her of the spreading dogbane and northern bedstraw that grew near her childhood home. Two feet away, an out-of-water coral reef glowed in neon hues. Callie turned to follow Vaka and noticed black seed-pods the size of pumpkins hanging from a vine above her head. They were pulsating, and it sent a shiver down her spine. There was so much to learn about this place.
Keeping up with Vaka was a challenge, as he was much taller and had a longer stride, but Callie did her best. Callie felt like her lungs were going to explode and was about to ask for a break when he stopped. He clicked a hand-held device and some sort of transportation pod materialized from thin air. It looked like a futuristic motorcycle, but instead of wheels it had a flat bottom that just hovered over the ground. Callie didn't want to get her hopes up, but she hoped she would get to ride it.
He held onto the handlebars as he swung one giant leg over the transporter. He settled into the seat and reached to pat the seat behind him.
"Hop on," he said. He offered his hand and Callie took it. She balanced on the seat and tried to keep from panicking. She didn't feel terribly secure.
"Hold on tight. This thing has some speed." Hold on to what? Callie wondered. There was nothing she could reach that would keep her from tumbling off. Except for Vaka. She slid her arms around his torso, anchoring herself to his substantial bulk. She only had a moment to contemplate how good it felt before they sped off.
Callie held tight as they raced through the forest on his speeder. He piloted it effortlessly, weaving between trees and avoiding rocky outcroppings with a practiced ease. She saw no evidence of his people or civilization and wondered how far away they were.