by Ruby Dixon
Worry clouds his expressive gaze and he leans in and gives me a quick, soft kiss. “I will wait here.”
I slip from his grasp and lay flat on the pallet. “I’m ready,” I tell the computer. The bed immediately begins to recede into the wall with me on it, and I watch Aehako’s worried face disappear from sight.
Lights flick and then go dark.
I suck in a breath, because this isn’t like a CAT scan after all – more like a slab in a morgue. What if the machine breaks down and won’t let me back out? I start to breathe rapidly, full of anxiety. My hand touches the panel over my head. It’s less than a full arm’s length away, ditto the sides. Lights begin to flicker, and I watch the walls come to life with more writing and dancing charts – probably my vital signs.
“How can we assist you today?” the computer’s smooth voice asks.
“I need a foreign object removed.” I point at the translator in my ear.
“Please remain still. Our systems will scan you to make a health determination.”
I put my arm down and lie flat on the bed, careful not to move. I look around, wondering at the technology. I’m a lot smaller than the bed itself – I think even Aehako’s brawny form could fit in here – which tells me that the sa-khui haven’t changed much since the crash. There’s a head rest – maybe in case the patient has extremely large horns – but it’s too big for my neck and I ignore it, tilting my head off to the side.
“Our sensors have noted two foreign bodies,” the computer informs me pleasantly. “Would you like for us to proceed with extraction of both?”
“T-two?” I stammer, shocked. “What do you mean?”
“Our sensors indicate a non-organic compound attached to your human sensory organ. Further scans indicate that you have also acquired a parasite native to this planet—“
Oh. The khui. I keep forgetting that Aehako’s people crash-landed here and had to take the khui, same as we did. No wonder their computer views it as a foreign object. “I want to keep the parasite and get rid of this thing.” I tap the translator. “The non-organic compound attached to my um, ear.”
“Please turn on your side so we may examine the object in greater detail.”
I roll over and immediately, computerized arms sprout from the wall and begin to touch the translator. Things whirr and chirp, and I have to bite down on my lip to keep from jerking every time something taps on the metal, as it sends feedback screeching through my skull.
“Object identified,” the computer informs me. “Sensors indicate it is a strbde qreiduvp scipqrei.” The computer rattles off a sequence of unintelligible sounds. “Would you like to proceed with extraction?”
I notice no one’s offering anesthesia or novocaine or any sort of medication to numb the pain. I lick my dry lips. “Is it going to hurt?”
I mean, I still need to get it removed either way, but I want to know what I’m in for.
“Sensors indicate that the equipment is attached to sensitive neural tissue. It will take some time and effort to remove without damage, but the probability for successful extraction without requiring additional surgery is 97%.”
That sounds encouraging. “Let’s do it, then.”
The table underneath me whirrs and shivers, and a sleek metal cuff slides around my neck.
“What?” I yelp, jerking as another cuff locks around one of my wrists, and another on my ankles.
“Kira,” Aehako bellows, and his voice sounds far away, muffled through the machinery.
“Please remain still,” the computer admonishes me. “You are being restrained for your own safety. The slightest movement can affect the operation. Do you still wish for us to proceed?”
“Kira!” Aehako shouts again, and I hear a clatter of equipment, and an angry chirp from the computers.
“It’s okay,” I call out in a small, thready voice. “I’m all right! Tell him I’m all right, computer.”
It’s silent for a moment, but I don’t hear Aehako shouting anymore, so I suppose that’s a good sign. I force myself to relax, trying not to think of the cuff around my neck as choking me. It’s just like a blood pressure cuff. That’s all. No problem.
“Please remain calm during the procedure.”
“Okay.” I close my eyes so I don’t see the robot arms moving around. Something pings and I feel a tug against the translator, and my body tenses.
“Your blood pressure is abnormally high. Shall we provide soothing music?”
The question strikes me as utterly absurd, and I swallow my hysterical giggle. “I’ll calm down,” I promise.
“Do you have any other questions you wish to have answered?”
My stomach chooses that moment to rumble, and I decide to make a joke. “Is there a snack bar around here?”
“Query: what is snack bar?”
Oh. Now I have to explain. I feel a bit childish. “A place where you go to eat.”
“This ship has three dining locations. However, current food and water supplies are exhausted.”
Of course. The people that crashed here probably cleaned out the pantry. “How many people were on this ship?”
“At the time of landing, this vessel had one pilot and sixty-two passengers.”
Interesting. I hear the computer arms humming and the thing in my ear tugs. I squeeze my eyes even tighter shut, trying to relax. “So what kind of trip was it? The one that crashed?”
“The charter for Se Kilahi reads: A voyage for those to commune with nature.”
Se Kilahi must be the ship. It sounds pretty. “Commune with nature? Was this a…camping trip?” If so, they got a heck of a camping trip. Maybe they were a back to basics kind of group and that would explain why Aehako’s people went from advanced technology to leathers and hunting/gathering in the course of three hundred years.
“Query: what is camping trip?”
“Never mind.” Something tugs on my ear again and I cast about for another question. “So what’s the weather going to be like for the next week, Siri?”
“Query: what is Siri?”
“Never mind.” I smile inwardly at my own joke.
“The atmosphere indicates that more snow will return at this planet’s sunset.”
Yaaay. I never thought I’d be so happy for snow. Maybe it’ll prevent the other aliens from landing. “Can you tell if there is another ship in the atmosphere here?” Worth a shot.
“Affirmative. Sensors have located an alien ship three drumah away.”
I have no idea how far a drumah is, but I hope it’s far. “How many aliens on board?”
“Sixteen.”
Ulp. “You can tell there’s sixteen? Seriously?”
“Affirmative. This unit is connected to a satellite orbiting the planet that allows the ship’s computers to track and record information.”
“Like how many sa-khui are here?”
“Affirmative. There are thirty-five modified sakh and twelve modified humans currently on the planet.”
Huh. I wonder what the point of recording all the information is for. Before I can ask, there is a sharp tug on my ear and I yelp.
“Please remain still as the extraction begins,” the computer’s sweet voice tells me.
Then, there’s a blinding, red-hot shot of pain that seems to jolt directly to my brain and the world goes black.
AEHAKO
My heart stops beating when the wall spits Kira out. She’s crumpled on the strange bed, small and still, and there are bloody bandages pressed over her ear. Her strange metal shell is gone but her face is so pale, and she’s unconscious.
Mouth dry, I touch her cheek to rouse her. When she doesn’t stir, I collect her in my arms and take her away from this room. I don’t trust it. I don’t trust the elders’ cave, with its strange magic and glowing walls and disembodied voices. I want to take Kira back to my own cave and lay her down in my furs—
Well, it’s not really my cave but my family’s cave, and it would be awkward to lay her down in my furs
and mate with her with my younger brothers and my parents looking on. But I’d find someplace quiet to take her and comfort her. To hold her and make her mine.
None of that matters, though. Kira’s unconscious and not well. I scent Haeden somewhere nearby and follow my nose until I locate him, still at the front entrance, staring at the strange stone doors with a grim expression. He gets to his feet at the sight of me with Kira in my arms, his scowl deepening.
“What is wrong with her?”
“They removed her shell,” I say. “But she won’t wake.”
He grunts. “She might be tired. Perhaps the walls chatted her ear off.”
I cradle her closer to my chest. “Are they talking to you?”
He nods. “It keeps asking me if I wish for anything. I wish for silence and for stone walls not to speak to me.”
“Ask the stone walls where a bed is. If Kira is going to sleep, I will stay with her until she awakens.” I look around. “Where is the other human?”
Haeden shrugs. “Does it matter? She has to come out through here to leave.” He gestures at the closed cave-mouth.
My friend has no love for the humans. He might be the only one in our tribe who was not beside himself with joy at the discovery of so many women. I turn and look at the strange stone walls with their flashing lights and moving wiggles. I decide to address it. “Where is a cave? I wish to set my mate down to sleep.”
Haeden arches a brow at me but I ignore his silent question. Kira is my mate, even if neither my body nor hers realize it yet. They just need time.
The computer speaks in the human language. “Living quarters are in the south wing.”
“Lead me there,” I demand.
The floor lights up as it did for Kira, and I hold her close, pushing my way into the bowels of the cave. I don’t like this strange place, but it seems to be safe from predators. The strange lights lead me down another winding path, and stop at a cave with a half-open door that shivers as if trying to shut itself. There is a broken piece of the wall hanging down from the ceiling that prevents it from closing, and I slide under and into the cave itself.
It’s a small, too-square compartment with more of the flashing panels, but I’m pleased to see that there’s a square pallet covered with a soft, squishy, strange-feeling animal skin. I toss my cloak down over the pallet and gently lay Kira down onto the bed so I can examine her again. Worry makes my heart pound and I smooth a hand down her arms and legs and chest, looking for hidden wounds I might not have seen before. She seems healthy in body. I peel back the bandages over her ear. There are reddened holes along her lobe, and dried blood crusted inside her ear canal, but otherwise I see no issues.
There’s nothing to do but wait for her to awaken.
I slide onto the bed next to her and wrap my arms around her. She fits against me so perfectly. I sweep my hand over her hair and press my mouth to her strange, smooth forehead. “You are safe with me, Kira,” I murmur in a low, soothing voice. “No one will harm you while you are with me. I will fight to the death to keep you at my side. Enemies will look upon my spear and recoil in fear.” I run my hand down her small back. “Then, you and I will get a cave of our own. I am not sure how, but we will manage. And we will set up a nest of warm, thick furs to keep your fragile human body warm, and I will press my mouth to every inch of your soft skin and show you how much you mean to me.” My fingers graze over her face, tracing her small nose, her tiny brows. She is strange looking compared to the women of my tribe, but I have a great appreciation for her flat brow, pale face and sad eyes, and her small mouth that so rarely curves into a smile. I decide right then and there that I will act a fool around her if it will only bring a happy look to her face.
I will do anything for her.
I settle in to the bed, describing in great detail how we shall set up our cave. How my mother will fuss over the thought of having a daughter, as she has only sons and none of them mated. Of how my father will shake his head at my ways, but it won’t matter because it is all for Kira.
“The biggest, warmest bed in all the caves,” I decide. “Dvisti fur is the warmest and I will line our nest with that, and then ask Kashrem – that’s Maylak’s mate – to create soft coverlets that are softer than a kit’s bottom, but warm enough to please you. It will cost me much, but Kashrem’s always been jealous of my carving, so I shall create him some new tools, I think. Perhaps a few baubles for his kits.” I consider thoughtfully. I’ve always given away my carvings with ease, not concerned with getting anything in return. Now that I have a mate, I shall have to consider things more carefully, so I may provide all the things she wants. “And we shall need furs for the entrance of our cave,” I tell her. “To muffle your shouts of pleasure when I take you every night.”
Perhaps that is my own male pride talking there. I do not think Kira is a shouter. Not like Asha was. She will be the quiet type, the kind that comes with a widening of her eyes and a parting of the lips, and no more than that.
I picture it, and my cock grows uncomfortably hard. Time to think of other things. I stroke my hand down Kira’s arm. “I imagine that the first brutal season with my people will be hard on the humans. You struggle right now, but I will do my best to ensure that you are always warm and well fed. And when the snows are too high for even the hunters to go out, we shall stay in our furs all day long.”
Strange, how badly I want the life I am envisioning. My heart thuds hard, thinking of Kira, warm and smiling up at me from a long night of vigorous mating. Kira, with her belly rounded with my child. Kira, nursing a tiny human-sa-khui halfling, with a pink tail and stunted horns. What would our child look like?
Lost in pleasant thoughts, I continue to talk to my unconscious mate.
KIRA
My head feels like a cracked-open melon. Pain pounds in my brain, and I remain completely still, hoping that the lack of movement makes the agony dissipate. As I do, I hear a soft, low voice.
“I might have to stack the back of our cave with extra dung so I can keep a fire going for you at all times. I’ll just have to figure out something to disguise the smell. Maybe some of Maylak’s herbs. And I know you like your meat cooked, so there’s that to consider. And when it gets too cold at night, we can heat some snow in a quill-beast bladder. You can preserve them a certain way and place them at your feet to keep your furs warm at night. Either way, I’ll make sure you’re happy and comfortable.” Aehako’s big fingers trace my jaw. “But I’ll take care of you.”
My headache fades a little at his soothing touch. I’m cradled against him with my face pressed to his chest and my hand nearby. His arms are wrapped around me, hugging me against him, and it feels…like home. I keep my eyes closed, relaxing in the low thrum of his voice as he tells me all about his plans for ‘our’ cave and how we’ll weather the brutal season – the winter – together and all the plans he has for us. I have to admit that hearing him talk about his plans for the two of us together fills me with an incredible amount of yearning and muted joy. Joy because setting up a cozy cave with him sounds incredibly wonderful and I still can’t believe someone as fun and sexy as him is interested in someone as quiet as me.
Yearning because he starts talking of kits and when I have his children.
Which will never happen, because I’m still barren. A small sigh escapes me. He wants me and a family, but he can only have one of those things.
“Kira?” I feel his big body move under my cheek and my hand. “Are you awake?”
I nod and lick my dry lips. “Head hurts.”
“The shell is gone,” he says, keeping his voice low.
I reach up and touch my ear. It sends a new round of blistering pain through my head, but I also feel…lighter? I trace along my earlobe and feel the new holes there. It’s really gone. “Did you destroy it?”
He tenses against me. “Should I?”
“Please,” I whisper. “They might be able to track me with it.”
“I’ll take care of it,�
� he says, getting up from the bed. “But first you must drink.”
I nod and manage to pull myself into a sitting position. He pulls out his water skin and holds it to my mouth carefully so I can drink, and when I’m done, he helps me lie back down in bed and then gently tucks the blankets around me. My heart is brimming with affection for this giant, laughing man that can be so tender with me.
I hate that I can’t keep him. That I’m flawed and I’ll never be what he wants in a woman. In a mate.
I sigh softly and close my eyes again to relieve my pounding head.
“Rest, Sad Eyes,” he tells me, and caresses me once more before heading toward the door. “I shall handle everything.”
I close my eyes and hope he’s right.
• • •
When I wake up later, my headache is all but gone and my stomach is growling. I sit up in the bed, conscious of a big warmth curled around my backside. It’s Aehako again, and he’s returned while I’ve slept, and we’re spooning.
Gosh it’s hard to be me.
Aehako’s big hand goes around my waist, curling me against him. “Kira?” His sleepy murmur of my voice sounds like honey, and I can feel the rather…prominent erection he’s sporting pushing against my backside. “How is your head?”
“I think I’m okay,” I tell him. “I need to find something to eat, though. And a bathroom.”
“Bath…room?”
I nod sleepily, peering at the room we’re in. It looks like a small private bunk of some kind, maybe someone’s quarters. There’s a faded poster on the opposite wall, and I can’t make out what was on it. A few more wires hang from the ceiling and there’s a fine layer of dust over everything. The room has been stripped, right down to the bed which is nothing but a mattress with our furs placed atop it.
I swing my legs over the side of the bed and get to my feet, testing my strength. I seem to be fine, my surgery-induced migraine gone. If this is a private cabin, I’m sure there’s a potty around here somewhere. By running my hands along a few interesting looking seams in the walls, I manage to find what I’m looking for. It’s a cubby with a strange looking basin that’s a leetle too high off the ground for human legs. Off to one side is what looks like a shower.