by Regine Abel
I smiled. “Before we found refuge with the valos, we barely survived out there. But these two are Hunters for the Northern Valos. In exchange for using the printer, they’ll hunt enough food so that every single one of you can fill your belly, and they’ll show a handful of you what is safe to forage and eat around here.”
I hoped I wasn’t over promising, but I needed to conclude this deal fast. My skin was on fire from the heat. Even the cold aura from my companions no longer sufficed. I had to get out from under the sun and into the shade.
“And what are you going to do with that printer?” Shaun asked in a challenging tone.
Exasperated, I huffed and glared at him, dropping all pretense of civility.
“Look, if you want to discuss this until the cows come home, can we at least do this from the shade or somewhere indoors? As you can see, my friends are attuned to ice. This heat is a pain in the ass. Daylight is also wasting. If you want to eat tonight, we better come to an agreement fast because they will not go hunting at night when all the crazies come out.”
As I’d hoped, the prospect of missing out on a potential meal made most of the crowd more amenable, but pretty douchebag wasn’t ready to let go just yet.
“You can’t bully us into giving up our precious resources on a promise,” Shaun argued, trying to bring the crowd back under his spell. “How do we know you aren’t just going to hightail it once you’ve gotten what you want, without holding up your end of the bargain?”
“Because while Duke and I are making the replicas—and there are quite a few to be made—the Hunters will be out getting food for you and won’t return until they have enough for everyone. So do we have a deal or not?”
“I still don’t trust you,” Shaun said with a haughty tone. “You’ll need to do better than that.”
In that instant, I wanted to march up to him, rip the gun from his hands, and smash it across his stupid face.
“All right, you know what? I don’t have time for this shit. You want to hog the printer? Fine. Knock yourselves out. See how much food it will put in your bellies.”
Turning on my heels, I gestured for the valos to follow me as I marched back towards the boat, hoping the survivors wouldn’t call my bluff. Well, semi-bluff. We indeed didn’t have time for this shit.
Dave’s voice rose above the panicked protest that exploded behind me.
“Hey! Where’re you going?”
I paused and turned back towards them, trying to give my best ‘you’re wasting my time’ impression.
“There are plenty of other wreckages, and I don’t doubt for a minute that I’ll find one or more 3D printers in one of them without having to put up with this nonsense,” I said, waving a hand at them.
“Shaun doesn’t speak for the rest of us.” Dave cast a glance at the crowd in search of support. Multiple head nods and murmurs of assent greeted his words. “It’s a fair deal you offer. We accept.”
Fighting hard to repress a victorious smile, I briefed the valos as we approached the survivors. Shaun and his goons could prove problematic so I made sure to inform them of the potential threat, grateful the humans couldn’t understand us.
However, that same language barrier proved problematic when organizing the hunting party. Six humans—four men and two women—volunteered to join for the foraging lesson. With one-hundred-and-sixteen remaining survivors, thirty-two women and eighty-four men, they had their work cut out for them.
After we sent off the hunting party, Dave led us to the medical bay. Along the way, he gave us an overview of the hardships they’d faced. There had been sixty-three more survivors who’d passed away since the crash. Eleven of them had been guards who had attempted to maintain control—make that dominion—over the inmates. I could guess how that had gone down. Two dozen had died from their injuries. The rest had fallen to toxic local greens and fruits, predator attacks while hunting, and during expeditions to contact other survivors or local inhabitants.
To my great surprise, only a handful of them wanted to leave the wreckage. They had turned it into their home, and it provided everything they needed, from electrical power thanks to the solar panels, clean water to both drink and bathe with, cooking and refrigeration appliances, a solid roof over their heads, plenty of rooms to sleep in, and even a gym and rec room. They’d even transformed the crew deck into a greenhouse. If not for food scarcity and them running low on ammunition, they could build a thriving little village around the wreckage, but the predators made things difficult.
Most of the survivors had been misfits of society and didn’t see themselves as able to conform to the even stranger rules of an alien society. They’d hoped to build their own little utopia here. Their initially ample food reserves had largely fueled that hope, but their inability to replenish it via enough successful hunts quickly crushed it. Their attempts to reach out to other wreckages or local cities always resulted in half or all the scouts getting decimated by creatures apparently impossible to kill.
Duke expressed no surprise when I repeated this tale to him. This wreckage had landed in Sonhadra’s no man’s land. It was the farthest point from any valos city, with extensive forests and wildlands in their way. Most of the large predators could only be killed if you managed to strike their specific weak spot, some of which required a certain amount of work to expose.
At last, we reached the medical bay. I couldn’t blame them for wanting to stay here. It was state of the art, and could pass for a mini-hospital. The annexed pharmacy overflowed with every drug and medicine possible. It would last them a while, assuming none of the survivors started using them for fun.
And then I saw it: a pristine, gleaming 3D printer winking at me from a shelf behind a closed glass door in the far left corner. Beneath the printer, tons of coils of titanium filaments sat at the ready. I squealed in delight and clapped my hands, rushing towards it. Duke followed in my wake, his eyes glowing with intensity. His heartstone swirled and thrummed with excitement as he observed me manipulating the device. If he breathed, Duke would have held his breath, awaiting my verdict.
I beamed at him and nodded.
The raw emotion on his chiseled face tore at my heart. I knew thoughts of reuniting with his mother had triggered them, and I tried not to think of mine, grateful to be able to potentially grant him this gift.
Duke pulled the casing from his bag and handed it over to me. I placed it in the scanner which made a quick blueprint that it then transferred to the printer. I fed the latter with the titanium filament, started the printer, and then closed the glass door.
“The printer produces fumes that can become toxic in large quantities. The ventilation system inside will prevent it from affecting us,” I explained to Duke when he looked at me questioningly.
“So,” Dave said, trying to play it a little too cool, “the other two are Hunters. What does this guy do?”
I couldn’t help smiling. He was obviously trying to see what extra help he could get from Duke. Under the circumstances, I couldn’t blame him. I didn’t know what crime he had committed to land himself on the Concord, but he seemed like a decent leader. Any assistance we gave him would help solidify his position. While I didn’t really want to get involved in their drama, Shaun looked like a disaster in the making.
“He’s a Builder,” I said. “Buildings, bridges, furniture, you name it.”
Dave’s eyes widened, taking a calculating edge.
“Even if he agreed to leave me here alone, he won’t understand a thing you say,” I said pre-emptively.
“You can come translate while this first piece is printing. It’s going to take a while, anyway, to complete. Then, you can come back here to get another one started,” Dave argued.
“You missed the part about him not leaving me here alone,” I replied. “He’s very protective of me.”
“I can stay here with you,” Scarlet said. “And the door locks from inside, so no one could come in and mess with us.”
Her eagerness to
ld me she actually wanted to talk to me in private. With her being such a gorgeous girl, I could imagine what kind of conversation she might want to have.
“He’s not my slave,” I said cautiously. “It’s entirely up to him if he wants to help you beyond the deal we agreed upon.”
“Fair enough,” Dave said immediately. “Can you ask him?”
As expected, Duke freaked out at the thought of leaving me. But, looking at the printer proved Dave right. It would take longer than expected to complete the casing. Duke eyed Scarlet suspiciously, his gaze lingering on the gun she still held. Realizing how that would be a deal-breaker, she swiftly handed it over to Dave. After checking the safety of the additional manual lock on the door, Duke grudgingly allowed Dave to lead us outside to describe the tasks he could use advice on—make that help with.
SCARLET AND I WERE casually chatting while looking over the ninth casing currently printing. Each one took about fifteen minutes to build. Technically, that wasn’t very long, but in practice, it meant we still needed thirty hours, non-stop, to print the remaining one-hundred-and-nine casings to outfit every iced valos. To be on the safe side, I wanted to print an extra five, just in case. That meant we’d have to spend two nights here.
While making the casings, I’d shared with her the meal the Gatherers had prepared for me before my departure. She nearly wept as she devoured her share. As we ate, I inquired about the health of the other survivors. Most of the sick and wounded had been healed thanks to the well-stocked pharmacy and the top notch medical facility. However, Scarlet explained that they didn’t know how to use some of the equipment. A few survivors had also developed rashes or complained of various aches and pains. Since I’d be stuck here for a while—and watching paint dry offered more excitement than printing the casings—I wanted to use that time treating those feeling ill and teaching a few of the survivors how to use the equipment. Getting Duke to agree to let some survivors into the room in his absence could prove challenging.
As we swallowed the last bites of our food, Scarlet commented how sweet Duke had been to bring it to me while also ensuring no danger threatened me. It had made me feel cherished in a way I had never felt before. Duke was falling fast and hard for me. He showed it in every gesture, every look, and every word. Thank God, because my alien had completely swept me off my feet.
Our mutual feelings had shown enough for Scarlet to figure it out. She’d asked countless questions about E’Lek and life with the valos. Her interest in Zak made me wonder if she was looking for a sugar daddy; her ticket into the frozen city. However, she flat out voiced her desire to come with us when we left, and asked that a few more be allowed to tag along.
As I suspected, a gorgeous woman like her didn’t have an easy time in a prison setting. Before the crash, the guards had found plenty of excuses to ‘punish’ her. Some didn’t even pretend to be dishing out discipline and simply took what they wanted. She didn’t deny being among those who got rid of the guards. Now, she and a couple other women relied on Dave remaining in power to keep them safe, but he’d been losing a lot of ground with food shortage and harsh rationing. She didn’t care if she froze her ass off in E’Lek if it meant a measure of peace, safety, and a full belly.
Turns out her father was also here. After she got incarcerated over a botched up con job, her widowed father applied for a ship maintenance position on board the Concord. As a retired welding engineer, he had been too good a candidate to pass up, despite his ties to one of the inmates. Like me, most professionals who had applied for any role on the Concord soon withdrew once they realized what type of shady things occurred on board. The survivors had spared all the personnel that hadn’t messed with them, like janitors, cooks, and her dad.
I couldn’t promise her that the valos would welcome them, but my gut told me it would be okay for such a small group. If all the survivors had requested to join, that would have been a different story. Unless the valos surrendered their homes, E’Lek couldn’t house this many people. Even then, they wouldn’t want to, considering they had all but put me under house arrest over my skin color and my defending Lucie. Two thirds of the inmates were Caucasian or pale-skinned enough to pass as such. After their experience with the Strangers, I didn’t think they would let so many of us roam around their city, especially with us being almost even in numbers with them. Sure, they were stronger and could easily kick our asses, but why let the wolf in?
The ironic part was that Sheenika, the Fire Valos Creator, had actually been brown-skinned. If all the Caucasian survivors headed to Caldera, would they be welcomed with open-arm like the six of us had been?
While the printer worked its magic, I took a stroll into the connecting pharmacy. Scarlet wouldn’t rat me out for snagging a couple of items, especially considering they might serve her as well if the valos allowed her to join us. I grabbed some painkillers, penicillin, peroxide, and a box of tampons. That wouldn’t last long, but if I showed one to the female valos, I believed they could whip up something that would have the same efficiency. For now, Lydia didn’t need any, being knocked up and all, but that wouldn’t last either.
“Contraceptives?” Scarlet asked, as I turned to leave the pharmacy.
My stomach dropped. It was a fair question; one that I wouldn’t have hesitated to say ‘yes’ to a week ago. Chewing my bottom lip, I pondered; my conversation with Lydia replaying in my head. At twenty-eight, I wasn’t exactly in a hurry to pop-out kids. I wanted some one day, but was now the time? Even though I was falling hard for him, I barely knew Duke. Was I ready to have a child with him? Granted, their society viewed and handled children differently. Even if Duke and I threw in the towel down the road, our child would be loved and cared for by everyone including his father, and the entire tribe.
Our child...
It scared me, yet made my stomach flutter with warm fuzzies.
Fuck it.
“No, I’m good.”
Scarlet’s eyes widened. “Really?”
I inhaled deeply and let out a loud breath. “Yeah, really.” I stared her straight in the eye. “His people don’t practice contraception, and to be honest, I rather like the idea of bearing him a child. This is a new world, a new beginning. I’m going all in. Whatever happens, happens.”
“Wow,” she said. “I admire your courage.”
For all that, I saw the speculative look in her eyes. I had no doubt she was wondering if she could picture herself doing it, too. If my assumptions were right, Zak featured prominently in such thoughts. With a barely repressed smirk, I headed back to the med bay to resume my work.
Twenty minutes later, as I removed the completed ninth casing and started to print the tenth, loud shouts outside startled both Scarlet and me. We exchanged a confused look. Scarlet walked to the door to look outside through the thick, glass window. I followed her, straining my ears to listen.
“Sounds like happy shouts, not terrified screams,” Scarlet said.
To my great relief, I concurred.
“Millia and Zak must be back,” I said. “The hunt must have been successful.”
As if in response to that statement, Duke’s muscular frame walked up to the door. Scarlet quickly unlocked it, and we both gave him an expectant look.
“They are back,” Duke said, casting a curious glance towards the completed casings. “They have brought back much forage and two large beasts. The humans call them giant wild bores. I do not see what is boring about such massive creatures with countless, deadly tusks and horns. You humans truly are a strange species.”
I burst out laughing.
“It’s not bores, it’s boars!” I said.
He blinked at me, which made me chuckle further. Of course, phonetically, they sounded the same. I shook my head and gave him an indulgent smile.
“Never mind, sweetie. I agree that our language can be strange at times.”
He shrugged and smiled back. “I will go help them butcher the meat. While the humans cook it, we will come test the c
asings.”
My stomach twisted in a knot. We had agreed to simply use the titanium filaments to make the casings since that was one of the metals humans used for implants with the least risks of rejection or allergic reactions. We also didn’t have the proper size for the filament to be made out of the valos xorkeb ore. So before we went crazy printing one-hundred-and-eighteen of them, we wanted to be sure it would work.
Unfortunately, my man would be the Guinea pig. We couldn’t risk our two best fighters becoming incapacitated in case things turned ugly with the humans. I argued that we couldn’t risk having our best sailor down if we had to make a quick getaway on the river, but Zak and Millia argued that the trip here had clarified plenty for them.
It merely took an hour to cut up the two beasts. Half of a single one provided more than enough meat to feed all the survivors to bursting. Each ‘boar’ measured about seven feet high and twice as long in length. The rest of the raw meat was portioned off and placed in the refrigeration units. Rationed reasonably, they’d have enough to eat for one week. If the test proved successful, the Hunters would stockpile as much food for the survivors as they could over the two days it would require to finish making all the casings.
Scarlet joined the other humans in the kitchen to help prepare the meal composed of large boar steaks with a side of boiled roots that tasted like yams, leafy greens reminiscent of spinach, and riverfruit for dessert. The entire ship buzzed with joyous energy while my own heart imploded in my chest. Millia tended to the carcasses and furs of the beasts, teaching her technique to a handful of humans. Zak would join her after he completed the procedure on Duke.
Throat tightened to a near-choking point, I removed the titanium casing from the sterilizing solution while Duke lay down on the operating table. Zak placed the Creator cream container from the cave on the tray by the table, then thoroughly washed his hands.
“Are you sure you don’t want anesthesia?” I asked Duke for the hundredth time.