CAVE ALIEN

by Renard, Loki

  My instinct is never to run from a battle, but I have this woman in my arms, this shivering, broken, terrified little creature who is relying on me to protect her. I cannot stand and fight. I have to run, because I can see no fewer than three security teams deploying to our current location, and none of them look like they’re going to understand the fact that I just killed a permit holding stall owner because he was keeping his stock captive. In the eyes of the law, I am nothing more than a murderer and a thief.

  The security teams are made up of heavily armored little aliens with six arms and four legs each, but even with all those extra limbs at play I move at a much faster pace than they do.

  “STOP! HEY! STOP! Please?!”

  Their cries become more desperate and less authoritative the further we go. If I’m not mistaken, they’re also out of breath. My pride will not allow me to run from what would on Earth be equivalent to mall security.

  “I’ve got asthma!” I hear one of them gasp.

  A few feet away from the ship, I stop. I turn around and see that they have nothing but electric jab sticks that won’t do a thing to me, and self-righteous attitudes. I’m sure this crime will be reported to real security forces soon enough, but right now, this is the volunteer brigade, and my ego stings at the fact I ever ran from them in the first place.

  I’m interested to see what happens next. Will they try to take me down? Will they issue me with a ticket? Will they leave with their entrails decorating their bodies in new and interesting ways?

  All the teams stop with an almost audible screeching sound and stare at me, their stalked eyes blinking at me with a profound confusion. I wait a moment for them to try some kind of arrest, but predictably, nothing happens.

  “I thought so,” I say, turning and walking onto the ship. There’s not a single one of them who are going to risk their lives for one ratty looking zoo specimen, or to avenge the lives of a handful of criminal elbublians.

  “Seriously?” Reaper greets me at the door. “You stopped to showboat and intimidate?”

  “Yes,” I say, pushing past him. “Get this ship off the ground if you don’t want to be surrounded by real enforcement forces.”

  “You had to make that much of a mess!?”

  “I only killed the ones that deserve to be killed,” I say. “Now let me get this girl safe.”

  She’s curled up in my arms, so small and so still it would be easy to forget that she was there if she wasn't the most precious thing in all existence.

  “Put her in the containment area,” he says. “We can set up a new human triage area, just like we did before.”

  “I don't think so. No containment fields for this girl. She’s been through enough captivity to last forever.”

  I can see One peeking out from behind Reaper. She’s curious, but not as curious as I am, or nearly as worried. I have the girl, but I don’t know how long she will survive if she isn’t tended to immediately. I don’t feel much, if any motion in my arms. I’m not even sure she’s breathing.

  “You want help?”

  “I don’t think she needs two of us fussing over her,” I say. It’s better than saying what I want to say: No. She’s mine. Don’t fucking touch her.

  I was so angry when Reaper took One for his mate. When he met One for the first time, he took her for his own almost immediately, mating with her before I could. I thought he was being selfish. I thought of her as something that should have been shared property.

  For the first time, I understand completely why he refused. And I’m surprised he didn’t kill me for suggesting he let me have her, because now I have this quivering female in my arms, I know I will never want anyone else - and I will never let anyone else touch her. I don’t know a thing about this girl, but I know she’s mine. I know it with more certainty than I’ve known anything in my entire life.

  I never thought I’d have the chance to find love. It’s too early to tell if she might love me, but I already know I love her. The feeling is suffusing every tissue in my body. I feel an intense urge to protect her at all costs, an overwhelming need which will not allow me to relax until I have her somewhere secure.

  “You know where the medical bay is?”

  “Yes. It is one of the four cabins on this entire vessel,” I remind him. “Just take off, please. Use the hyperdrive. Jump as far and as fast as we can. I left a mess down there.”

  “Of course you did,” Reaper says. There’s no judgement in his tone, just resignation.

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