Here

by Zolendz, Christine

  “Rune…” I breathe, I don’t really know what else to say.

  Ahead of us, Jex illuminates the passageway with beams of soft light that stream from the top of his faceplate. My eyes dart back and forth between the shadows of the strange men standing in front of me, and drop my shoulders. “It’s been days and I don’t even know if she’s still alive. What I do know is that she’s not going to make it much longer without me.” Tears fill my eyes and I try to wipe them quickly away. “That’s all I’m concerned with right now, getting back to Claire.”

  “I will get you there, female,” Jex’s tone is cold and hard. I try to meet the black eyes of his armor but the light shines in my way. “For now, can we reach a place of certain safety here on this vessel so we can make a plan as to what to do next? The desperate words between the both of you is a great annoyance to the rest of us.”

  I think I hate him a little. Desperate? Of course I’m desperate! I’ve been taken up into an alien space can against my will, stripped bare, and everyone who depends on me is still on Earth. Most likely alone.

  “Fine, whatever,” I say, pushing through all of them to take the lead through the tunnel. “Just keep shining your alien beacon in front of us and let’s all shut the hell up. The quicker we get to the core, the quicker we can make a plan for me to get off this crazy, testosterone-filled garbage can.”

  “Agreed,” Jex grunts, moving behind me. “Let’s push on.”

  I walk a few steps ahead of them, my shadow stretching out before me, long and sharp. Jesus, they all must be getting a great view of my backside. This is insane. I need clothes now. Not only am I still freezing and shivering, I’m on full view for a bunch of alien virgins. And I can hear them clearly whispering about it.

  I have no idea how long we walk, but I can gauge the duration by the aches in my feet and shins. I’m sore and tired and getting very cranky. They’re all wearing armor that helps rejuvenate their muscles and I just feel like I ran a marathon then decided to climb a mountain when I was finished. I just want to sit for a minute, or maybe a few thousand minutes. And I’m starving. I don’t think any of them eat up here. I need my own armor and I need it soon. The passage turns with a sharp right and slopes down into a dimly lit area where an abrupt surge of warm air meets my skin. The heat feels amazing and makes a soft sigh slip out of my mouth.

  Suddenly, people are surrounding us.

  I gasp and fall back, stumbling and losing my footing. Rune lurches in front of me and holds his arms out to protect me. “Get back,” he grinds. As I steady my balance and peer over his shoulder all I find are bare faces and horror-filled eyes. My mind can’t process what I’m seeing at first. It doesn’t make sense. Half-armored Caelum, maybe a half dozen of them, and some of them—oh my God—some of them look like women and children.

  One older female stands in front; her hair is so blonde it’s almost white, cascading over her shoulder in a long, tangled braid. She has pale, paper-thin skin and narrowed angry eyes. One of her hands extends toward me, the tips of her alloy fingers glowing amber with the heat from her weapon. My heart screams in my chest. Okay, so this is how I’m going to die. This is it. I’m never going to be able to help Claire. Who is she? Where the hell did they come from?

  I pull my arms up to block my face and yelp out a cry, because that will save me from instant disintegration.

  Armored gloves raise up behind me. They too, glow red with whatever weapon is pulled to the ready. “Stand down,” Rune shouts. “By the direct order of General Rune, drop your arms.”

  The blonde woman before me tilts her head an inch but her weapons still point toward my head. “Who are you?” she asks.

  “Kate. I’m Kate.”

  “Why have you no armor on?” a woman standing just to the right of her asks.

  “Trust me, I wouldn’t be naked if I could find some freaking clothes on this piece of flying scrap metal.”

  Rune slips in front of me holding his arm out, targeting the blonde.

  “No, Rune. Wait,” I say, stopping him. I hold my hand to his chest and flatten my palm over it. “I told you my name,” I say to the woman. “What is yours?”

  “Sarah,” she says.

  “Finally,” I smile. “A normal name. Are you a Caelum or are you from Earth?”

  Her eyes dart between mine and Rune’s but she doesn’t answer me.

  I swallow hard; my throat is dry and cracked and exhaustion is beginning to press heavily on my shoulders. “I’m not a Caelum. I’m…” I glance quickly at Rune; his face is full of fury and rage. I circle my hand gently over his skin. “What did you all call me when we first met, a grounder?”

  The woman’s face hardens and her nose flares. “There are no such beings. And General Rune is dead.”

  “She’s not lying,” Rune says, touching his hand to mine. “She is of the Earth, from before our forefathers left and I am General Rune.”

  “Well then,” she says, cocking her head the other way. “It will be my pleasure to extinguish you all.”

  Then an explosion of fire and light blasts from her fingertips.

  44

  Kate

  Jex shouts and leaps forward. His arms fly up and a spray of electric blue light rains down from the ceiling and shoots up from the floor. It streaks across my eyes like millions of lightning bolts and instantly stops the fiery blast the woman aimed at us. I feel the impact, though, of her weapon against whatever Jex just did, and it throws me back as a surge of heat crashes over me.

  Through the strange electrical barrier, the woman stares at us, with a look of complete and utter shock across her features. The air sizzles and buzzes. “Only the Sentinel are armed with defense shields that strong.”

  Rune holds up a hand to Jex and the thousands of lightning bolts vanish, leaving a soft haze of smoke where it stood. “Jex is my Sentinel, and I am General Rune. Your actions scream of mutiny and treason.” He steps forward, bare-chested and practically defenseless. “Now, answer the questions my female asked of you. Are you a grounder or Caelum?”

  As the mist of fumes dissipates, I notice a small movement behind the woman. Without thinking, I lean closer trying to see a clear view. There are two children hiding behind her, dressed as Caelum, yet not as polished as the others I’ve seen here on the ship.

  “Rune,” I say, pointing my finger ahead. “There are children behind her.”

  “So, you are grounders. How did you board the ship? Did Pious take you?” His tone turns harder and colder. “How did you find armor for children? There is no one here that size.” Rune advances and the woman and her small group fall to one knee and bow their heads.

  Rune stills instantly. “If you are not Caelum, why do you kneel?”

  My eyes scan over the small dimly lit room. There are two uploading docks on the far wall and a small mobile first-aid station next to it. A stack of what look like books sit in one corner and another lies a pile of blankets or clothing. I can’t tell from where I’m standing. “You are Caelum, aren’t you? And you live here? In the tunnels?” I ask.

  Rune jerks his head around to me, wide-eyed and confused. I gesture toward the belongings that lay neatly around the room. “Look at the room, Rune. They’re staying here. There’s an uploading thing and a first-aid thing over there.” I look back to the woman. “How many of you live here?”

  “There are six of us,” Sarah whispers.

  “Please, stand or sit. There is no need for kneeling and we promise you no harm,” Rune says. He fixes his eyes with mine then and asks, “Is there anything you can give Kate to keep her warm?”

  One of the children dashes into the corner and rummages through the dark lump of materials and brings me back a strangely textured blanket. “Thank you,” I say, wrapping the heavy garment around my shoulders. It’s so large it drapes down past my feet and trails behind me. Within seconds I’m warm.

  “How did you come to be here? I have not seen a female Caelum aboard this vessel,” Rune asks.

&
nbsp; “We were created sixty-two years ago. We are the last of the females. There were only six born in that generation,” she says, gesturing for us to sit on small metal blocks that create a circle in the middle of the room. Two other women come forward and take a seat on the empty cubes. They must be strange uncomfortable alien chairs. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen much furniture or belongings on this ship at all.

  I jump on the closest one. My freaking feet are killing me. As soon as my ass hits the surface, I let out a loud sigh of relief. The children come sit on the floor by my feet and stare up at me. I wave and they flinch back. “Oh no, please don’t be scared. I won’t hurt you.” I lean forward and smile at them both. “That’s how we say hello to each other on Earth. It’s called a wave.”

  Both of them wave at me.

  I laugh and look up to see Rune staring at me. So, I wave to him. I can’t quite see too well, because the lighting is so dim, but I think he rolls his eyes at me.

  “We were told the last of the women were born and all expired generations ago,” Rune says. “Jex, Tore, Garve, please join us.”

  The others all sit, forming the rest of the circle. Four Caelum women, four Caelum men, two children, and one naked me. “Does anyone have any extra armor or anything? Something I could defend myself with?”

  I’m ignored.

  Jex inclines forward, his elbows leaning heavily on his knees. “This doesn’t make sense, at all. Why were we told there were no longer women? And why are you hiding in the core?”

  “All females born on this ship end up in the preservation lab and are only used to harvest eggs. But we weren’t. We were supposed to be sent out the airlock, hiding was our only option.” As Sarah and the other females relay their story, I stare down at the children carefully. Something isn’t right.

  “I’m sorry,” I say, holding up my hand. The kids cringe back again and gasp. “Can…is there any way we could get more light in here?”

  Sarah nods and one of the women climbs up from the chair slowly and walks over to the shadowy area of the uploading station. She swipes away at the dashboard and the room brightens. My eyes dart around the room. There are no lightbulbs or lamps, the walls just seem to illuminate. I look back down at the children.

  But they aren’t children.

  Their skin is wrinkled and pale. The irises of their eyes a stark white, circling unusually large pupils and set too far away from each other. They remind me of Claire’s eyes. Their feet are clubbed and jut out of their armor at awkward angles, topped with a few extra toes. Oh my God, I snap my eyes up to Sarah.

  Her features are off too, as well as the other women sitting before us. Eyes set too far apart and deformed chins. Skin translucent, taking on a jaundiced hue. I lock my eyes on Rune’s trying to catch his attention.

  He’s already staring at me, wide-eyed. The last of the women born on this ship were being thrown away, and they were being thrown away because something happened to them when they were born to make them look like this. A shiver runs through my shoulders and down my spine. These people remind me of those old vintage posters of circus performers who were freaks or human oddities audiences would pay to see.

  “I think inbreeding or mutations is what made your women die out,” I whisper. “I don’t remember anything about genetics from school, but something definitely went wrong. I just don’t know what.”

  Rune stares at me blankly. “We’re doomed, aren’t we? Mine will be the last generation of humankind. Ever.”

  A shiver racks through my entire body. Sarah’s eyes dart from Rune’s to mine and back again. “Kate is what they call you?” she asks.

  I nod and try to cover a yawn. I’m cold and tired and my head is getting all muddled up. I’m running on pure adrenaline right now. God, I would kill for a coffee.

  “Would you like to rest and update to optimal health?” she asks.

  “I don’t have armor,” I say, huddling the blanket tighter around me.

  Rune stands immediately. “Come, Kate,” he says holding out his bare hand for me.

  I hesitate before taking it and chance a peek at Sarah who is staring at us in horrified wonder. We must look dangerous to her, insane. All she’s ever known is what the men on this ship have told her. All she’s ever done or seen is the tunnels in this stupid dark metal can. Taking your armor off and skin-to-skin contact is forbidden, unheard of, unthought of even. How lonely it must be to never be allowed to touch another human in sixty-two years.

  I reach up and take Rune’s hand. The women all gasp in unison. They gape at us, mouths open, as we walk toward the docking station fingers entwined.

  Rune positions himself in front of me and makes quick work of ridding himself of his armor.

  “What are you doing?” I gasp.

  “You’re still shivering—half my chest plate and this pathetic cloth is doing nothing to save you from the cold and I can see the exhaustion and muscle strain you’re enduring. Let us switch belongings for a few moments.”

  His armguards are off, his feet bare. The only thing left is the armor below his waist. Oh God, am I going to see Rune naked? A swarm of butterflies flip wildly around in my stomach. Around us the others fall into whispery conversations.

  His hands reach to the middle of his waist and still; his eyes flash up to mine. For a moment we both watch each other, without a word, but not without thought, I’m sure.

  I wonder if he’s afraid or embarrassed like I’ve been made to feel this whole time. His eyes drop down to my lips and my cheeks catch fire. Without thinking, I unwrap the blanket halfway off my shoulders and slide the width of it over his back, so both of us are huddled in the middle of it. “Here,” I whisper. “This should give you a little more privacy.”

  The warmth of our bodies under the cover of the blanket sends an ache through me. An unwelcomed and unwanted one.

  I take a deep breath and try to focus my eyes on the ceiling somewhere while Rune pulls the rest of his armor off and stands bare before me.

  “There is something here in the air between us that cracks with electricity,” he whispers.

  You have no idea, mister.

  He shifts his weight and it brings him closer, so close that something smooth and hard brushes against my belly and his breath hitches. “Kate, I think…you should really put on my armor now,” he says.

  It’s insane. Crazy. Freaking ludicrous that I don’t want to—I would rather stay like this for just a few brief minutes with his eyes staring at me like that. “I know,” I whisper. It’s just exhaustion, that’s all. Seriously.

  Neither of us move.

  Rune’s lips part and his warm breath fans across my skin. I want to lean farther into him and let that heat ignite fire to my body.

  “Kate,” he says hoarsely. “You really need to cover…” His gaze darts from my eyes to my lips, over and over again.

  “I will,” I murmur. “But it’s so warm like this and I’m so freaking cold. Cold and tired.”

  Then, softly, so softly, he traces his fingertips down my spine and a low moan rumbles in the back of his throat. I shift closer, just a little, fighting the urge to rock myself against him. Oh God, this is not good. Kate, step away from the alien asshole. You’re delusional right now. Overtired. In a dream state.

  Back and forth, his fingers trail over my flesh until they slip slowly around my hips and tremble along my waist. “Your skin,” he whispers. “It feels like it’s melting against my hands.” His fingers drift even slower now, more deliberate over my stomach, up and up, until they touch the bottom curve of my breasts.

  “Maybe I am melting,” I breathe, closing my eyes.

  The pads of his fingertips brush up past my nipples sending a zinging sensation through my entire body. I can’t stop the gasp that slips past my lips.

  The sound stops him cold and my eyes fly wide open. Our eyes meet, and I can see the ache in his expression, it’s the same one he must see in mine. His hands drop and fall to my hips, his fingers diggin
g into my skin. Will he try to kiss me? I want him to, even with all the chaos going on around us, God, I want his lips on mine. It doesn’t make sense. There’s no logic to it. It’s more than want, it’s an achy wanton need. I lift up on my tippy toes to reach him.

  “Kate,” he growls, his expression full of conflict, anger. “Put. On. The. Armor.”

  I fall back on my heels. “Wait,” I say breathlessly. “What?”

  “Grounder,” he says, backing away, pulling the blanket taut around us. “Your wish is to be rid of the Caelum. To be rid of me.” He puffs out a low shaky breath. “I want you as my mate,” he whispers. “It’s something I’ve never felt or known before. But I won’t have you this way.” I swear, the room starts to spin.

  “W-what way?” I whisper.

  “Temporarily,” he rumbles, pushing forward, pressing his body up against mine, until my back flattens against a wall. His breath becomes heavier as he looms over me. “Once I mate, that’s it. It will be for life. My female will stay with me, until we part in death and I will never touch another.”

  Oh damn.

  “You want me to bring you back to Earth. You want me to leave you there, where I am certain you will die, and you won’t even think about staying here with me.” He bends down quickly, picks up his armor and shoves it at me. “That’s not the kind of mate I want. This sensation that festers in the spaces between our bodies needs to cease.” Then Rune yanks the blanket off his shoulders angrily and stands there absolutely, flawlessly naked in front of me, showing me exactly what a glorious thing I am going to be missing out on.

  We both hesitate, staring each other down.

  He’s going to change his mind. In a minute. I can see the way his chest heaves and his eyes begin roaming all over me. I drop my hands that hold the armor to my sides, so we’re both facing each other without the protection of clothes. Goose bumps ripple up my arms.

  The muscles of his chest and arms tighten.

  His jaw tics.

  I’m waiting for him to pounce at me, for his lips to find their way to my mouth, but instead he backs away from me, shaking his head. “This was your choice, Kate. You’re choosing death over me.”