“Here we go,” Gar said, his voice tight, his body wracked with nerves. There was aloud clink and then they were free from the mother ship. Gar hit a button and they bolted forward.
“They’re tracking us!” Gar said, looking at a smaller screen with a large flashing glyph that Sarah of course did not recognize.
The ship shuddered.
“They hit us!” Gar said, and he gripped the stick and pulled it to one side.
“No!” Sarah called out as the ship shuddered again, and alarms began to blare once more.
“We have to put down!” Gar said. “There!” he added, jabbing a long forefinger at the screen/ Sarah could see a small blue and green orb there, some distance away. It reminded her of Earth.
“What is it?” she asked. “A Can we survive there?”
“I think so, but I don’t know this sector very well. We’ll take our chances. We both need oxygen, and it it looks as though there’s vegetation, so there’s oxygen there. One little jump, and we’ll make it,” Gar said. He tapped some buttons and the screen blurred and Sarah felt herself pushed back into her seat as the ship flashed forward. When the pressure abated and the screen came into focus once more Sarah saw that they were much closer to the green and blue orb.
“We’re coming in too fast,” Gar grunted, and the only thing Sarah could do was watch the world come closer, and then the screen burned bright white as they entered the atmosphere of the world.
The ship shook violently, and Sarah saw a green expanse of vegetation before them, with a blue river snaking through it towards the top of the screen. She grip the arms of her chair so tightly her knuckles were as white as ghosts, and there was a piercing sound in the small ship which took Sarah a moment to place as her own shrill scream.
The green trees came up to meet them, and then the ship slammed into the planet.
Sarah came to and she had no way of knowing how long she had been out. There was thick and hazy gray smoke hanging in front of her eyes, so thick she couldn’t see anything around her.
“Gar?” she called out, but he did not answer. Her head was a pounding, and there was a sharp pain in her side every time she took a breath. She worried that she had broken a rib. She remembered how her father had done so one time, when he was out in the field he had fallen into a cavern which had opened up under his feet and had broken three ribs and his right arm. He had been alone, and had to walk back to his camp through the woods with his injuries. Her father was tough and strong and Sarah looked up to him. Now she was in an even worse situation, and she wondered if she would be able to be tough and strong.
“Gar?” she called again, reaching down with shaking hands to undo her harness. She freed herself and stood, yelling out at the pain in her side as she did so. She moved forward and to the left, where Gar had been sitting, moving through the smoky haze.
Her hand touched the back of his chair, and then it came into focus. She could see the alien slumped over from behind, and she moved slowly around to the front, fearing the worst. His chin rested on his chest, his eyes closed. A large gash on his forehead, with dark red blood dripping down his face. She couldn’t tell is he was breathing.
“No,” Sarah moaned. If Gar was dead she was stuck on an alien planet alone. Just… days? Weeks? It was hard to keep track of time, but not that long ago she had been on Earth, her biggest worry seeing the mother of her friend who had died. Her predicament now made all of that seem silly.
And then Gar coughed, and Sarah felt hot tears sting her eyes as relief filled her body.
“Gar, I’m here,” she said.
“The computer is dead,” the alien said as he sat up and tapped some buttons. It was obvious that he was grievously hurt, he was hardly able to hold himself up in the chair, and he grunted with each movement. “Are you hurt?” he asked, and it touched Sarah that the alien could be worried about her in his own state.
“A little,” she said, and made a mental note not to complain or grimace or yell out. She didn’t want Gar to worry about her.
“I don't know if we can breathe this atmosphere,” the alien said. “Not without the computer.”
“Well, I’ll just have to go outside,” Sarah said, and she turned away from the console and the alien, and back towards the hatch.
“No,” Gar said, reaching for her arm, but grunting in pain and dropping his hand before he touched her. “It should be me.”
“Look at you Gar, you can hardly move,” Sarah said. “I’ll do it.”
“Fine,” he said with a weak nod. “Press the button next ot the door.”
Sarah nodded and placed her hand for a moment on the alien’s shoulder, and then she went to the hatch. There was a circular button there, and she pressed the flat of her palm against it. The door hissed open, and she could see that they had landed in some sort of alien forest, the plants green and yellow and red, but none of them recognizable beyond their color.
The air was humid as Sarah stepped outside, and taking a deep breath made her feel light headed, as though there wasn’t as much oxygen in the air as there was on Earth, but still, she could breathe it.
“We can breathe,” she said, returning to Gar’s side.
“We have to get out of this ship,” the alien said. “They will come down to make sure you are dead.”
“Why didn’t they kill me and take the necklace in the first place?” Sarah asked Gar.
“I think you were merely the carrier. None of them wanted to touch it.”
“Will it really kill them? If they touch it, I mean.”
“Yes, I believe it will.”
The alien reached for her then, placing both of his hands on her shoulders. She braced herself for his eight and took him by the upper arms, helping him to stand. Gar roared out in pain.
“It’s okay,” Sarah said, trying to comfort the large alien. “We’re fine.”
“Gar nodded, in too much pain to talk. Slowly, with the gray skinned alien taking tiny steps, they made their way to the doorway and out into the hot jungle.
“Interesting,” Gar said, looking around. “I’m not familiar with any of these plants, try not to make contact with them. They could be poisonous, or worse.”
“Worse than poison?” Sarah asked.
“Sure, we have a plant on my world which can swallow me whole.”
Sarah laughed, as though the alien was telling her a joke but when he remained straight faced she realized that it wasn’t a joke after all.
“Where are we going?”
“Set me there, on that log, you’ll have to gather a few things for us,” Gar said, and she did as she was told, helping him to sit on a fallen log. She stood in front of him as he explained what she wanted to get, telling her where it was (or should be, the crash may have jostled more than a few things) and what it looked like, and within five minutes she had piled the gear on the spongy green ground in front of the alien. They had a ten, held in a silver tube. They had two clear balls with facemasks and straps to be worn about the shoulders. Those were oxygen tanks, Gar had explained, in case they got light headed from the lesser oxygen content on the planet they were marooned upon.
Sarah had also grabbed a square pack which held a blanket, a backpack of sorts filled with food and water, and a long rifle that came in three parts that were held in a black shoulder bag.
“One more thing,” Gar said, remembering suddenly. “The radio near the console. About this big,” he said as he held his hands up. “Black, with a red button on the side.”
Sarah nodded and went back into the ship. She found the radio and hurried back to Gar. “We can call for help?” she asked.
“No, but we can hear it coming for us, at least when they get close enough. Without the ship working I can’t call for anyone, but that necklace is too important for my people to leave down here, so they’ll find us. Do you still have it?”
Sarah checked, pulling the necklace up from the neck of her shirt. “What happens if we didn’t have it?”
&n
bsp; “Then we would be on our own,” Gar said, letting his shoulders rise and fall. “A war is going on, and the two of us would not be considered a priority.
Sarah nodded, as though she understood, but the idea made her feel frightened and a little bit sick, and she found herself thanking God that she still had the necklace. Of course, if the crystal had never come into her possession, she would be back at home. Surely that would have been more preferable than anything else.
She and Gar split up the good and set them about their bodies, and then it was time to help the strong alien to his feet once more, and they began to make their way from the ship.
“I remember a river up this way,” Gar said. “Hopefully we can drink it. We can make camp there.”
“Are they really going to come for us?” Sarah asked.
“Sure. We’ll be fine.”
“I mean the Aeon’s,” Sarah clarified.
“Oh. yes, yes I think it likely that they come for us,” Gar said. “We can hide. We landed on a good planet, if they send ships, they won’t see us. If they come down, we’ll kill them.”
He was saying the right things, but Sarah was watching the alien from the corner of her eye. She didn’t think he seemed as though he believed what he was telling her. She decided not to press the matter though.
They had been walking for some time, both of them sweating, the heat in the jungle almost oppressive, when Gar reached for her suddenly and stopped her.
“Get down!” he said as he shoved her to the ground and then threw his bulk down beside her with a painful grunt. She yelled out, her injured ribs screaming in protest as she slammed into the ground, but then she heard it, a high whine overhead, and she craned her neck to look up.
A triangular ship, much smaller than either she had been on since being abducted by aliens streaked overhead, it’s engines red and screaming.
“Just one,” Gar said, perplexed. “There will be others, we can be sure of that,” the alien said when the ship had gone, and then he started the laborious process of standing up. Sarah moved quicker and helped him off of one knee, and then began to walk again.
“It won’t be hard to find our ship, they probably already have,” Gar said. “They know we survived, I should have tried to set it on fire or something, make it look like we died in it. But it’s too late now. They’ll be coming for us.”
“You said we can hide,” Sarah said.
The strong alien sighed. “It’s hard to hide from an Aeon,” he said, tapping one large finger against the side of his head.
“How close do they have to be?”
“I don’t know. Let’s just hope they don’t get close enough.”
That made sense to Sarah. She nodded, and once they were sure the ship had gone, they went on.
The Earth girl and the alien heard the river before they saw it, a dull roar of water sloshing against rocks and the sandy bank.
“It’s really moving,” Sarah said as they stood near the edge, but careful to stay under the canopy of trees, just in case any more triangular ships came.
“Could we cross it if we had to?” Gar asked her.
“I think so,” Sarah said. “I’m a good swimmer.”
“I am too, but I’m hurting,” Gar said, and right then he coughed, and Sarah was alarmed to see crimson bloody spray from his mouth.
“You need to sit down!” Sarah commanded, easing Gar to the forest floor.
“If we can’t swim it, we’re stuck here with no retreat,” the alien told her.
“Then we have to stay hidden,” Sarah said, kneeling down next to him and looking at the tent they had brought. “What color is this?”
Gar looked at her, unable to keep amusement from his features. “It will take in its surroundings,” he said. “It changes colors.”
“Well, that’s good,” Sarah said. She pulled the tent from the tube, and she held it in her hands, still rolled up. As she did so it turned the exact shade of her skin. “Wow,” she said.
“It’s so commonplace a technology on my world, but I’m guessing it is not on yours?” Gar asked her.
“No, not quite,” she said.
“I can help you set it up, it is not hard,” the alien told her, and he started to rise.
“No, you stay there,” Sarah said, holding a hand out to him. “I can figure it out.”
And as Gar watched and grew more steadily impressed with the Earthling, she did just that. She figured the tent out, and soon it was set up twenty or so yards away from the river, in between a thicket of green bushes with alluring purple berries, and the fabric took on the same green of the bush with the same balls of purple, looking so realistic Sarah thought she might be able to reach out to the tent and pluck the berries off. Then she went back to Gar and helped him stand, so that they could enter the tent.
There was just enough space for them both, and Gar lay down while Sarah sat near the fastening flap and kept an eye out, the top fasten undone so she could see the forest in front of her, with the roaring water to her back.
“Give me the gun,” Gar said, sitting up. Sarah handed it over and she watched him quickly snap the three pieces together. When he was done he handed the gun to her, a show of respect and trust that touched Sarah rather deeply, and she felt affection bloom in her heart.
“Are you okay with the dark?” Gar said, gritting his teeth as he painfully slid closer to the girl so that he could peek outside. The sky was hard to see, but they could just make it out through the canopy of trees. It was a brilliant purple, it was clear the sun was setting.
“Yes,” Sarah said, though the idea wasn’t one she relished, she refused to show Gar that she was anything but capable, tough and willing to do whatever it took to survive. He nodded at her and reached out and placed his hand on her arm.
“I’m the good guy,” he said to her, taking her by surprise.
“I know,” she said. “I feel it.”
“I just… I know you were fooled by one of them. The Aeon, they’re evil. I’m sorry you went through that.”
The memory of Henry came fast, and it caused a physical pain in Sarah. Her chest, her head. He had violated her apparently, he had made her think things she wouldn’t have otherwise thought. It was the largest break of trust she had ever experienced, and it made the young woman sick to her stomach.
“You know how to use that?” Gar asked finally, nodding his head towards the rifle.
“Just point and shoot, right?” she asked, and the alien chuckled softly.
“Something like that,” he said, and he took a moment to show her how to turn the safety off and what to use a sight. Every movement he made was a laborious one, and Sarah was worried that he was much worse than he looked. As for her own injuries, she no longer thought she had broken a rib, the sharp pain had subsided to nothing more than a dull ache.
“Gar, are you alright?” she asked, and the alien grimaced and nodded.
“I’ll be fine,” he said.
“Why don’t you lie down? Try to sleep.”
The alien nodded once more, and he did just that, lying back, his arms folded beneath his head. Sarah took the blanket they had brought and laid it over him, for as the sun had fallen from the sky above them the temperature had shockingly dropped much lower than Sarah had expected it to. Gar was already asleep, but he mumbled something that sounded like thank you to Sarah’s ear piece translator.
She sat then, alone but not really, staring out through the small section of open flap. Everything grew darker with each passing moment, until Sarah could hardly see the plants that were only ten or so feet away from her.
As the aliens lept she took a moment to take stock of her situation. She was on another planet. Stuck there until someone came for her and her protector. Evil aliens were surely combing the forest for them, intent on… what? Killing her? Taking her once more. It was almost too much to think about, and she shoved the thoughts from her mind and instead tried to focus on the outside of the tent.
The
dark forest around them was alive with sounds. Chirping of… what? Birds? Insects? Sarah had no idea what to expect when it came to animals on an alien world, but it was very clear that there were some, for she could hear them all around her. But as the hours wore on Sarah saw or heard no evidence of the Aeon’s, and for that she was glad.
The young woman was intent on not falling asleep, she felt as though they should have someone on look out at all times. Nor was she willing to wake Gar up, as hurt as he was. She watched him for some time, here and there, making sure his chest was rising and falling as he slept. She was looking at him when he opened his eyes and smiled. They could just see each other, for it turned out that a luminous fish swam the waters of the river nearby, and it cast an eerie blue glow about the forest for a hundred yards in either direction.
“Hello,” the alien said.
“Hello,” Sarah replied, unable to keep from smiling.
“You should sleep,” Gar said, grimacing while he sat and reached for the gun. She handed it over and scoot around him, taking his place on a padded mat that was attached to the floor of the tent, and then she pulled the blanket over her. She had changed into trousers and a shirt, clothes that had been in the escape ship and that they had brought with them. She was glad to have done so, the small dress Henry had given her would have left her frozen.
“Did you see anything?” Gar asked her in a whisper.
“No,” she said, yawning.
“Rest up,” he said with a smile, and Sarah fell quickly asleep.
Chapter Seven
When Sarah awoke she could tell it was day time once more, there was an orange light all about the tent, and she had to blink several times as her eyes grew accustomed to the light. Gar was awake and sitting by the flap, munching on a small brown tube which reminded Sarah a bit of beef jerky.
“Here,” he said, handing a tube to her when she realized she was awake. She sat up and took it, and their fingers brushed one another and Sarah felt an electric shock go through her, not a real one of course, but a sensual one, an attraction that couldn't be denied.
Aeon Captive Page 4