“It’s gone. It seems it was just thirsty.”
His voice had the same depth of a soldier reporting to his officer, and I kinda wanted to relieve him of his duties. So I just nodded in agreement. When he left without saying anything more, I stayed behind only for a moment, looking at nothingness.
I looked at that little firebird that chirped again, and I thought that we were kind of the same. Only that I couldn’t fly away from Jay and my thoughts, and I was not flashing beautifully in the dark. I was just a Chronicler, and finding the Nusae relic was my priority.
Chapter Ten
Jay
I felt the temperature rising. My muscles felt inflamed, and I started feeling the effects of a long sleepless night. The human female was as energetic as ever, bouncing from one side of the gorge to the other, trying to examine every last species she could find.
I didn’t understand the hopefulness of it. There could be a hundred, even a thousand of species in this gorge alone, and she wanted to find every last one of them? She would spend her whole life in this patch of land, searching, finally ending up not even close to completing her work. However, seeing her get amazed by even the tiniest bit of progress, somehow warmed my inside.
I wasn’t sure I had felt like that for a long time, but then, even if I had, I wouldn’t remember it. The sunrays fell down from a slight opening on the upper side of the building. The half-broken pane, filtered the light in a gruesome green, and I battled with the urge to squirm my eyes.
Me, the powerful Prime Officer, not standing the sight of light. I sighed.
I walked to her side, and I heard her loud exclamations while examining one of those flying animals she called fire-birds. They were not actually on fire, and I didn’t really understand where that name came from, but it had stuck to me as well.
“So, its skin and wings evolved to help it survive in places even with as little water as here. Also, the light it emits from its belly helps it guide its way through narrow and dark spaces like the destroyed buildings. Amazing!”
Unnecessary.
Why should I care about the firebird? Is it that important to our task? Will this information help us survive? No. It’s just garbage.
I noticed that I grunted and sighed more often when I was around that female. She was turning up to be a hindrance.
“We should go. Where is your spaceship?”
She half-turned her head, trying not to stop her examination of the friendly animal. “It’s not too far from here, but I’m not going anywhere until I find the Nusae relic.”
Again with the Nusae. Why were humans so obsessed with those puny, three-eyed monkeys? It was like they had never seen Nusae around the galaxy. Those colorful creatures were everywhere. They were really hard to miss. “You’re mad. You almost died three times in just one day and yet you want to keep going?”
There they were, those eyes made of fire. “If I leave now, I give up my life’s work. Would you run away from your dream?”
“Esuh don’t dream. We take up missions, and we just accomplish them. Dreams are for lesser species.”
For the first time, she didn’t reply. She just stood on her feet and passed by me with a disregarding expression on her face. I couldn’t understand her at all. But I followed her. I wasn’t sure that she would survive the way back home all alone.
We took the road back to the place we got separated with the rest of the crew. The robot and the half-human had survived, I was certain. The first seemed too stubborn to die, and the other was raised in this place. However, how were we gonna find them now? The female would definitely not leave this Earth without them.
“Silver!”
“Eladia!”
That was fast.
As I ventured out of the narrow pathway, I saw the sparkling Android with the young half-human outside, waiting for us. Frankly, I was surprised. I never expected they’d find us that fast.
“Are you okay? Are all your systems working?”
“Yes, yes, I’m fine. How about you? One second you were here and the next one, our alien friend carries you up that enormous tree. We thought you were dead.”
As if I had to kill her. She could die all by herself. She wouldn’t need my help.
“No, not at all. On the contrary, Jay was the one who saved me. If it weren't for him, I would be dead now.”
That’s true, but still, don’t mess duty with sentiments. Yes, I’m talking to you, Jay...I mean Jasih. Gods, this girl, has wormed her way into my mind!
“That’s...surprising. I morphed to my thruster form and Zan climbed one of the near buildings to get away. We spent the night in one of those ancient apartments. It was horrible until I found something you wouldn’t believe.”
Abruptly, Eladia’s expression changed. Her jovial, energetic faucet changed into an all-serious, all professional face.
“What? What did you find?”
“Earlier this morning, you initiated the scanning protocol. Since you never actually asked me to stop, I took the liberty of violating some sub-principles, and I scanned the area around the place me and Zan stayed.
“The energy reading I found before, has moved. It’s now really close, although it stopped moving suddenly when the sun rose.”
Eladia combed her hand through her loose hair and grabbed a generous tuft of hair. With her free hand, she reached into her back pocket and took out one of those rubber thingies. That tail that didn’t do her justice at all, returned.
“Let’s go. We have to check it out. It is the only lead we have towards the relic.”
Honestly, this woman is restless.
That was the only way I could describe her. I saw them depart, and I found myself facing a dilemma. I saved her and reunited her with her colleagues. My job here was done. The day had come, and I promised myself that I would spend only one night with them. Nothing more.
I could turn and leave. No questions asked, no queries. But, how would I leave this place without their help? Even if I remembered who I was before the crash, how could I repair my spaceship in this primal planet?
And it was not only that. When I would take my first step forward, I would not only be lost on a strange planet, but I would also be curious about that woman, Eladia.
What about her?
Something in those dark, shining eyes fascinated me. I wanted to see through them, all the way into her mind, and understand why she was so passionate about that...dream.
I raised my pace, and I was suddenly standing close to her; for some unexplained reason, it felt like the right thing to do.
Chapter Eleven
Eladia
Silver was walking in front of me, with Zan following her close behind. Those two had become inseparable since they met. Of course, it helped that she was the only one of us three, that could communicate with him. The young man stumbled now and then, and signs of fatigue appeared all around his body. I could relate to him.
My feet hurt, and I thought we would have been there by now. If my estimates are correct, we have been walking for two hours now and still nothing. The signal is still too weak. Is it still moving? Is someone else here, mocking us? I don’t know. The only thing I know is that I’m hungry, tired, and not in a good mood.
Maybe Jay is to blame for that. He’s colder than the coldest months back in Yaerus. I would rather spend a night at the Arctic Cycle than keep going through his cold-shoulder treatment. But, either way, if it weren’t for him, I would have died three times already.
We took a sudden turn to the left, and we stumbled upon the strange crossroad from last night. The enormous tree was here, the destroyed buildings were all here, but fortunately, the insectoids had moved on. If my neck still didn’t ache now and then from the sting, I wouldn’t believe that last night’s events happened. However, as we moved forward, I saw a small, gruesome monster lying on the ground.
Six legs, two smaller in the front, and a big head; yes, this must have been from last night. How it died I would never know.
I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to meet another wave of those things in the future, even though they might be scientifically interesting.
“We’re getting close!” Silver suddenly uttered.
At the same time, I realized that Jay must have carried me for over ten miles last night while running and climbing up that enormous plant. I turned and looked at him, and the only thing I saw was the figure of a robust and confident man.
Well, he is an Originator after all. Whole fleets of spaceships have fallen to those extraordinary men. It shouldn’t be that difficult for him to carry me to the end of the world if he wanted to. Not that I would mind him carrying me now, even just for a few feet. But I’m an independent and strong woman damn it. I need no man!
And just like that, with renewed strength and determination, I placed next to Silver and Zan. Honestly, if they hadn’t stopped walking, I didn’t know if I would ever catch up to them.
Silver looked lost. She turned her holographic head and the metal parts of her body whizzed and hummed. “The signal is strong here, but I feel like we passed over the source. Eladia, I think that the relic is underground.”
I felt my heart sinking. Underground meant we needed specialized equipment, and to get specialized equipment to a Class 5 planet, I would need almost three years of red tape and endless bureaucracy.
“Fuck,” I swore behind my teeth. Silver was close enough to hear me but didn’t seem shocked.
“What’s going on? Why did we stop?” Jay arrived last. I couldn’t deal with him now. I tried to find a solution. In the meantime, Silver explained how things were to him. “So? Why don’t you ask the half-human here to show us a way down? The whole place is full of underground passages. Didn’t you know?”
Silver asked Zan, and he nodded. They had a short conversation that ended with Zan rushing forward, towards another crumbled building on the right. This one was in better condition than the other ones, but it was still covered with many kinds of plantation. It was a pity for a place that big to end up an endless forest of cement and old empires.
I felt the urge to thank Jay for his help, but I didn’t. Maybe when and if we found the relic, but now he was just another manipulative pig.
Yes, that’s more like it.
Zan was now running back and forth in what seemed to be some kind of tracking. He moved forward and then back, and forward again, reporting everything he saw to Silver.
My esteemed assistant looked happy, a feeling that I had never seen in a robot before. She was unique alright, but I never knew she could be happy, and sad, and worried. It really made you wonder.
We circled around the maintained building, only to find some sort of underground entrance. Zan was standing tall in front of it but didn’t take a step inside.
Silver got to his side and asked him something, he replied fast, sounding worried. She turned her head to look at me. “Zan says it’s dangerous to go on. That if he was all by himself, he would stay as far away as possible.”
“He can stay out here if he wants. I’ll go.” I only heard my arrogance after the words had left my mouth. But with Jay close behind me, I didn’t want to look weak. I had to find this relic.
“Eladia, maybe you should reconsider. Let me scan…”
“We’re losing light, Silver. If possible, I would like to be back to our camp tonight. I need a good night’s sleep after our little adventure.”
She nodded. She couldn’t overrule my commands after all. If I said jump, she asked how high. I didn’t wait for the rest of my company.
I’m close, I know it, I can feel it in the air.
As soon as I took the first steps downstairs, the light quickly reduced to the bare minimum. Silver was close behind me, but I could hear another set of legs following us downstairs. I turned and saw Zan and Jay behind me. And now I felt sorry for being so selfish. Zan was afraid and followed me just because I wanted to find a troublesome Nusae relic.
Good going, Eladia!
“So, do you know what this relic is?” Jay’s first words, in what seemed like hours, aimed to diminish my efforts.
“No,” I replied to him snappily. I would have loved to add a detailed explanation, but it would end in another fight, and it wasn’t the place nor the time for this.
We were already deep into the tunnel. Everything was covered with white tiles, and for some reason, the booming growth of the planet hadn’t touched this part. Other than some dead weeds between the cracked tiles, there was nothing else indicating that this place was abandoned.
Silver casted some light in front of us, making the place look even creepier.
“This way. We’re close. Less than a half mile straight from here,” she said, trying to lift our spirits.
I climbed down a platform and followed some sort of rails deep into the tunnel. So, that was a station then? Interesting. But, no other forms of life, not even sleeping animals of some sort or anything. This kinda worried me.
“Human...there is something further in.” Jay was tense, I could feel it in his voice. Up until now, every time this man was nervous, something bad happened.
I took small and uncertain steps forward. Up until now, we got attacked by wolves, spiders and even felines. Everything extinct in Yaerus thrived here. But, what appeared where the light got weaker, was the thing I least expected to find.
“Is that...another human?” I muttered, thinking that my eyes deceived me. But as we got closer, a figure of a man standing still appeared all the more real. “Hello? Can you hear me?”
A scrubby thing of a man — that was the best I could describe him — appeared to listen to my words. It turned, half naked from the waist up, bony and totally hairless. No brows, no chest hair, no actual hair on the head. He was a pack of skin and bones.
Zan behind me hissed, but I didn’t expect to see a human. Humans could communicate, that worked with Zan. “Excuse me, can you hear me? Do you understand me?”
I moved closer, and closer, now an arm’s width away. If he stretched, he could touch me. He just barely breathed. He breathed in and out twice for a whole minute. Even if he was asleep, he would have to breath faster.
“Human, you’re too close.”
Hearing Jay’s voice made me desperate for communication. “If you can understand me please nod, hiss, do anything.”
Suddenly, the man opened his mouth to reveal two sets of teeth inside, screeching at the same time. Every hair on my body raised hearing his cry. I tried taking a step back, but his hand snaked its way around my shoulders and caught me.
I could hear his hoarse breath next to my ear, every cell of my body shook like a leaf.
Jay, Zan, and Silver tried moving closer to me, but it didn’t let them. It snarled at everyone of them, and for the first time since I touched the soil of this damned planet, I opened my mouth and cried for help.
As the creature, the former human, dragged me deeper into the tunnels, away from my friends and the only source of light, I kept crying. Maybe it was in my mind—fear could do many things to your mind—but I thought I saw Jay’s eyes flash in the dark.
Anger surged out of his body, and he was getting ready to attack.
He cares. He cares about what happens to me.
Or maybe, it was all in my mind.
Soon, the only thing that remained was the snarl of the beast and total and utter darkness.
“Help...someone, help me,” I whispered.
But no one answered my pleas.
Chapter Twelve
Jay
Zan and I started running towards the way the bald human took Eladia. I didn’t know what had gotten into me, but my legs moved with a mind of their own. I was not sure why I even cared. She got herself into this mess again. Sometimes I believed that humans died young because of their recklessness. I warned her, twice, and she didn’t hear me.
Zan was sniffing the air around us, but when he snorted I quickly had a bad feeling about it. The Android had morphed to a small box that flew in the air, casting
light in front of us while scanning the tunnels for more exits. Weirdly, the thing that caught Eladia moved straight to the energy signal we were following before.
The annoying robot didn’t talk anymore, and the only sound we could hear was our steps echoing in the long tunnels. Zan suddenly stopped. I stomped my feet on the ground a moment later, sliding while trying to stop. I never realized that I yelled: “What happened? Why did you stop?”
Zan got scared and Silver morphed back to her android form. “He found the trail leading to her. It’s this way. You don’t have to get impatient,” the robot said to me.
Alien Romance Box Set: Alien Former: Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Books 1-5) Page 46