Stardust And Shadows

by Janelle Taylor

  He decided to provoke her into seeing and admitting the truth. “It didn’t take much persuading. You did a good job of that on your own. If you had truly loved me and wanted me, Jana Greyson, you wouldn’t have turned to my brother so fast. Real love can’t die that quick and easy. Real love is understanding, kind—”

  “You don’t know what real love is! Besides, how could I turn to Ryker when I was always with you?”

  “But you thought you were with him, didn’t you?”

  “Not until you pulled that cyborg trick! No matter how many times you removed clues or dropped phony ones, I knew it was you and I knew my rescue wasn’t a delusion.”

  “If you believed it was me and you truly came to hate me as you now claim, why did you keep responding to me as him?”

  “To evoke a confession or to discover why you were lying. I thought that if you loved me and it was a trick, I could make you feel guilty or scare you into halting your game. But I failed to coax out the truth.”

  “You know the truth now, so you’ll be my partner until it’s over.”

  “Like hell I will! This time, you space rogue, I have a choice in my life. Thanks to your charade, legally and publicly I’m Ryker’s widow and heir. I own Trilabs and all of his holdings; me, not you or the Maffei Alliance. As a citizen and free woman, you can’t coerce me into doing anything. I don’t belong to you or to any alien anymore. You had plenty of chances to win me, but you chose to discard them and me. Now, I have something more important than you.”

  “What?”

  “My freedom. And my self-respect. Things you stole from me.”

  Varian didn’t want to argue those touchy points with her. “You’ll have to work with me, Jana. You don’t have a choice.”

  “Yes, I do. If you try to force me to stay with you, I’ll expose you.”

  “And get us killed? Provoke intergalactic war? I can’t let you do that.”

  “Would you kill me to silence me? Is your ruse that vital?”

  “You’re talking crazy, woman. Of course I wouldn’t kill you. And I won’t let anybody else harm you. I’ve saved your pretty skin too many times to lose it now or ever. I have one other option. If you refuse to cooperate, I’ll hold you captive until I’m finished. And if you recall, my love, I can be a very demanding captor.”

  Jana realized it was futile to argue with him here. She would handle getting away from Varian when they were around others and he couldn’t stop her. She changed the subject. “What about Andrea? Is she all right?”

  Varian grinned, delighted to be on a pleasant topic. “Do I have a surprise for you!” he teased to snare her interest and alter her mood, which he obviously did judging from her look of eagerness and anticipation.

  “She was taken to Anais as I promised, and is safe. She was told everything about you, except the recent events, of course. Actually, I have two surprises concerning your best friend.” He sipped water.

  “What? What? Don’t keep me in suspense.” “She’ll be joining you on Darkar soon.” He saw Jana’s eyes widen in astonishment and confusion. “If you’ll agree to become my partner in the remaining ruse, she can live there with you until we marry, then live wherever she and Nigel settle down.”

  “She and Nigel? What are you talking about?” “It seems my best friend and your best are in love.” “Andrea and Nigel? How did they meet? When? Where?” “Incredible and wonderful, isn’t it? If Nigel has his way, she’ll marry him soon. From what he’s told me about her, she’s willing and ready. Nigel was on Anais recently, along with Tris and Martella. They told Andrea about you, about us, about Earth’s threat, and about our imminent attempt to save it. If you agree to be my partner, I’ll have the Earthlings returned to your world and have medical cures implanted in one of the doctor’s minds.”

  “You can block out memory and yet embed information?” “Yes, in certain matters. We’ll implant the clues to take Dr. Martin in the right direction. How about cures for cancer and AIDS? Along with saving your world and bringing Andrea to you and helping to get the charl laws changed, will you agree to help me with the rest of the ruse?” “Are you serious?” He smiled and nodded.

  “Do you have the power to carry out those promises?” He smiled and nodded again.

  Jana thought about his tempting and unexpected offer. “Is that all I have to do?”

  “I would like to add ‘marry me’ to the list but that might provoke a negative answer. But I warn you now, Moonbeam, I’ll do everything I can to get a yes to that question, just like you promised on my ship long ago.” “Don’t push it, Varian.”

  “I’ll even order some how-to-save-your-environment-facts embedded in one of the scientist’s minds. It will take only a few weeks. Is it a bargain?”

  She could risk becoming his captive to protect his mission or she could accomplish many positive things by assisting it. And it wouldn’t be for long. Did she have a choice? That question caused nibblings of guilt, because she realized she would do just about anything for those goals, as he had done for his. “Supply the medical cures and science facts, reunite me and Andrea, and free the charls and you have a deal.”

  He waited for her to include, and leave me alone afterward. He was relieved when she didn’t. “You’ll trust me to keep my word on such an important matter but you won’t trust me with your love and marry me?”

  “If there’s one thing I know about you, Commander Varian Saar, it’s that you’ll keep your word of honor. You never promised me anything, so you didn’t break your word to me. True, you implied promises, but that isn’t the same thing, I suppose.”

  “I’ve promised never to do it again, so what’s the difference?”

  “Earn my trust and prove yourself, then … Who knows? But don’t get any false hopes because I truly believe it’s over between us.”

  He was all smiles as he murmured, “We’ll see.”

  Jana frowned and said,. “Yes, we will.”

  Far away on Rigel, Jana didn’t know one of his promises, the one concerning the charls, was being carried out that very moment. Nor did she suspect that the other three were already in progress …

  It was afternoon of the next day when trouble struck the couple. Varian had sent out his coded signal again last night and this morning. So far, no shuttle—foe or friend—had appeared at or near their hiding place. They were discussing his plans for the remainder of the ruse when Varian pulled her to his chest and kissed her with unsettling thoroughness.

  Jana heard a sound she recognized and shuddered. She yanked away.

  “Give us a chan—” Varian urged.

  “Hush! Listen!” As Jana glanced about, he obeyed, but it was suddenly quiet. “I heard a keelar, one of those sand snake creatures.”

  Varian had been so enchanted by her that his guard had been down for a moment. He looked around and listened. He decided it was a trick to halt his romantic siege. “I don’t see or hear—”

  The “pssst” sound came again from several directions. She was right. He had become dull-headed and that was foolish and dangerous. Keelars were deadly, especially without an available antidote to their venom.

  “They sometimes live and travel in packs. Climb out of their reach. Now!” he shouted and nudged her when she seemed frozen to the spot.

  Jana scrambled up the boulders and Varian followed. They watched the ground seem to come alive with movement as the creatures earthed their way into sight. Varian shot one, two, three, but more and more surfaced. The air was filled with their angry hissings.

  He checked the weapon in his hand. He had only seven blasts left. The other two weapons were in the crevice with their supplies, out of reach with those lethal snakes everywhere. “I have to save my fire. We’ll wait them out up here.”

  “We can’t! We’re in plain sight of any shuttle that comes along.”

  “We can’t climb down. One strike and it’s over, Moonbeam. I’ve never seen so many in one group. They’re plenty mad, too. When one dies or is wounded,
he gives off an odor that attracts others.”

  “Then why did you shoot those three?”

  “I was going to kill all ten so I could get to the other weapons, but then more surfaced. They’re around the crevice; I can’t reach them. Maybe they can’t smell us up here. Maybe they’ll take their dead and leave.”

  “Smell us?”

  “That’s how they track prey. The scent of fear makes it stronger.”

  “If that’s a caution or suggestion to calm down, I’m not sure I can. Do you think they’ll give up now that they’ve found a tasty meal?”

  “Sit and relax,” he responded evasively. “We’ll be here a while.”

  She did, not because of his words but because her legs were about to give way. Her panicked gaze scanned their surroundings. It looked as if more keelars were arriving every minute. Jana shuddered and stared. They were trapped, without food and water, with weapons out of reach, and in view of a passing enemy. For the first time, she truly believed they might die on this barren wasteland. Until now, she had been confident Varian would find a way to save them. If only his signal would reach Nigel in time.

  “At least they can’t crawl up here,” Jana remarked. “Can they?”

  “Not with the rolled or sheer edges of the rocks.”

  Both fell into troubled silence as they sat within two feet of each other. Hours passed as the heat and their thirst increased. Their gazes shifted between looking at the skies for enemy crafts and looking at the ground for a retreat of the keelars. Many thick-bodied creatures had secured sharp teeth into their dead then dragged them away, possibly for food. Only the heads and about eight inches of sinewy necks of most were visible from their freshly tunneled holes. The snakes twisted their heads and shifted their bodies as if continuously keeping vigil in all directions.

  Varian didn’t want to make their precarious predicament worse by discussing a lack of options with Jana, but the snakes appeared firmly lodged in and around their campsite. He tried to come up with a plan to get their supplies and weapons, but there seemed no way without endangering himself. If he died, Jana would be in worse danger. He wanted to kill Taemin and Cass for luring them into this peril. He was apprehensive about enemy shuttles discovering them, after they had been so clever in eluding them. If the keelers didn’t leave and even if they weren’t caught by Taemin, they couldn’t stay on the rocks and starve or die of thirst. He had to come up with a plan.

  Jana was analyzing the grim situation, too, and her thoughts matched Varian’s almost perfectly. She stood and walked to the area above their supplies. The alien joined her.

  “We don’t have a rope or hook. The limb across the crevice is too thick for retrieving the water and weapons by their handles. The thom bushes are too short and limber to reach them.”

  Jana eyed the limbs he had placed at haphazard angles, atop which he spread the prickly brush for concealing them with what should pass for a wild thicket. “If we shove the thorn bushes away and move that sturdiest limb to there,” she said, pointing, “where the ledges try to meet, I can hang by my knees and reach our water and weapons.”

  “You could fall and those keelers would be all over you before you could escape the crevice and climb the rocks. No, Jana, it’s too risky.”

  “I took years of gymnastics and aerobics. I’ve climbed plenty of trees, fences, and rocks. I’m agile and steady. That limb should bear my weight for a short time. You can even hold on to my ankles in case it gives way. We have no choice.”

  “I thought you said we always have choices.”

  “We do: we can try my idea or we can sit on our butts and die.”

  “I’ll do it, Jana. I don’t want you getting hurt. That wood is abrasive.”

  “You’re too heavy. If you try, that limb is certain to break and drop you right into a nest of those vipers. I need to keep you alive to get me out of this mess. Have faith in me for a change. I might prove to you I have more to offer than just a body for sex and reproduction.”

  “If that was your only value, Moonbeam, I wouldn’t be desperate to win you back. I know your immense worth, Jana; that’s why I want you to become my wife.”

  “This isn’t the time or place to be harassing me with marriage proposals or subjecting me to your cunning charms. Keep your mind on the business at hand or we won’t survive to face that dilemma.”

  “All right, Jana, do it your way, but just be careful.” Varian used his booted toe to kick the branches to the ground. With him on one side and Jana on the other, they shifted the limb to a lower spot. He arranged verbal signals for avoiding danger.

  When she asked him to help her out of her dress, she noticed his startled reaction. “Get that lusty look off your handsome face, Rogue Saar. I just don’t want it hampering my vision and movement when I turn upside down.” After the garment was removed, Jana warned, “And don’t let it fall off this rock. I’m not fond of the idea of Taemin or his devils capturing me half naked.” She took off her slip and shoes and tossed them near the ruined dress, leaving her clad in a lace bra and matching panties in sky blue.

  Varian was surprised and pleased when her anxious gaze locked with his worried one for a moment and she smiled at him.

  Jana took a deep breath and murmured, “Here goes our one chance.”

  “If you fall, woman, I’ll thrash you good.”

  “You won’t have to; I’ll be dead in two hours from the bites of those critters.”

  Varian seized her by the shoulders and shook her. “Don’t even joke about such a horrible thing.”

  “Why not? It’s a lesson I learned from you: show contempt for danger and death so their powers are weakened.”

  “Bluffing foes and having a healthy respect for threats isn’t the same thing, woman. Keelers can’t be deluded and doublecrossed like men can.”

  “I’m sorry, I was only trying to lessen our tension. I’ll be careful.”

  His gaze roved her shapely body, then he ordered himself to alert. He flattened himself on his stomach on the rock above the ledge and dangled his arms over it to be ready to offer any help he could provide.

  Jana eased her way to the center of the limb by straddling the branch and using her hands to wriggle herself forward. “Ouch. Ouch. Oh-ee. That smarts. This bark bites as badly as those snakes must. Ouch. I don’t hear it groaning and complaining, so I guess it’s strong enough to hold me. I’m ready. Wish me luck, and watch those ugly critters.”

  For a moment, their gazes fused and spoke unbidden messages. Varian smiled and coaxed, “Don’t worry, love, I’ve got you. I’m sure you can do it. Get busy before they wise up and head for you.”

  Jana didn’t want him to know how scared she was. Much depended upon her success, so the risk must be taken. If you fail, J.G., and those keelars refuse to hit the trail, you and Varian are finished.

  Jana shifted to her buttocks and clutched the limb between her calves and thighs. With caution and with her hands gripping the wood support, she began to ease backward. She felt the muscles of her abdomen tighten from her strenuous effort. Her legs quivered from tension. When her long tresses fell downward, she thought about a keelar leaping at her and getting entangled in them. She wished she had torn another strip from the unfortunate dress and secured her hair in a ponytail at her nape. She felt blood rush to her head. Before she was in position to do her task or to sight the slithering predators, she heard their hissing increase. At the same time, she felt Varian seize her ankles as he shouted a warning to her.

  “Get back! They’re heading for the crevice! Up, woman. Fast!”

  Jana was glad she hadn’t lowered her arms yet because she knew the reptiles were almost within striking range. Varian applied pressure to her ankles to give her added strength and security. Her hands reached for the limb and she struggled to lift herself. Varian released one of his grips and held out his hand. Jana strained to grasp it. At last, their fingers interlocked and he pulled her to a sitting position on the branch. She raised her feet as she
didn’t know how far the elongated creatures could spring. Shaky, she let Varian lift her from the makeshift beam and place her beside him. She looked down to see the crevice writhing with numerous keelars, covering life-sustaining supplies and life-saving weapons. She locked her gaze with his. “It didn’t work.”

  “It was a good idea, but I should have thought to use my last seven shots to create a diversion on the other side with dead bodies.” After seeing her at work, he was convinced she could succeed and he told her so. “We’ll give them time to settle down and get back into their holes before we try again. That is, if you want to try again; I think it’s our best hope.”

  “Yes.” She forced out the intimidating word. She pulled the slip and dress over her panties and bra in case they had unwanted visitors first, then they sat down to rest while the keelars calmed.

  “I hope you’ll come to forgive me for tricking you, Moonbeam,” Varian said. “I want us to have a chance at real happiness when this is over.”

  “We’re what’s over, Varian. How could I come back to you without everyone thinking I’m crazy?”

  “It doesn’t matter what others think, Jana.”

  “It does to me, and it should to you, too. People look up to you. Young men and boys want to be like the illustrious Commander Saar. Your recent example tells them they can do as they please without fear of repercussions, especially where women are concerned. At least it would if I returned to you after how you’ve treated me.”

  “The public doesn’t know and won’t know of my deceits.”

  “They know you had romance with me. They were led to believe I was forced to escape your cruel clutches. Some of them know—and will probably gossip to others—about how I behaved with ‘Ryker’ during that first trip we took and how we acted on the Wanderlust during the Earth mission. They saw those lovey-dovey pictures that sneaky reporter took of us on Auriga: kissing in that romantic park, wasn’t it? I suppose you also arranged that. From everyone’s point of view, I’ve been Ryker’s wife for months. Now, as soon as he dies, you want me to race back to you. People will think me fickle, phony, opportunistic, and shallow. You may not care what they think of me and say about me or yourself, but I do, very much. I already have the stigmas of being an alien and a charl to overcome. I certainly don’t want more stains on my reputation.”