When he felt as though he was as safely far from the attack that he needed to be he kicked to the surface and went for the shore, pulling himself out of the water with a strenuous effort. He was still injured from the crash, and now he had been injured in the leg as well. In all Gar was in rough shape. But not once did the alien think of himself. His mind was only on Sarah. He had to find the woman, he had to keep her safe. He only hoped that she hadn’t lost the necklace. As long as she had that, it would keep her safe, the Aeon’s would use her to carry it to their weapon, for if they touched it, they would die, at least that was what they all believed. Gar had his doubts, but if that belief was what would keep Sarah alive then Gar was glad they all believed it.
A massive tree grew near the bank of the river and Gar crawled to it, seeing that there was an expanse of exposed roots and crawling in among them. He took a moment to check his new wound, seeing that the laser had burned him badly. He found some mud and rubbed it onto the wound, the cool wet soil working as a sort of salve, at the very least helping with the burn.
Pain. Sarah. That was it. Pain and the Earth girl. That was the only thing Gar could concern himself with. Pain because it was oppressive, pushing into every fiber of his being, and Sarah because he had fallen in love with her, and because he had made himself her sworn protector. But the problem remained: how in the hell was he going to find her?
Chapter Ten
The beast had finally gone away, or at least it looked that way when Sarah came to. She turned as best she could, in among the thorny branches to look behind her. Nothing.
Was it a trick? How smart were animals on this world? She was sure there were some animals on Earth which would attempt to trick their prey, but could they do that here? Slowly, moving like a human glacier, arah crawled out of the bushes, ready to throw herself back in at a moment’s notice. She stayed on her hands and knees for some time, free of the bush but not willing to move further. She strained her ears, listening for signs of the prowling beast, but she just heard the now familiar hums and buzzes of the insects and birds above her, and eventually Sarah was as convinced as she could be that the beast had gone. She stood up and looked all around. She had no idea what to do now. Eventually after weighing her very few options, the young woman from Earth decided to return to the river and make her way back towards where she had first jumped in.
She picked her way along slowly, keeping just inside the treeline as she followed along the twisting water. Fear kept her heart pounding within her chest, but determination kept her putting one foot in front of the other.
She wished she had a way of knowing how long she had been walking. It felt like hours, but she was sure it may have been less. She was hurting and exhausted despite the nap she had managed within the bushes, and she felt as though time might be passing more slowly in her mind than it was in real life.
A familiar whine crept up and Sarah hunched down near a tree, tilting her head back so she could watch one of the triangular Aeon ships pass by overhead. When it was gone she began to walk again.
The aliens saw her before she saw them. They were a new species, small humanoid with light green skin and four arms, the bottom set smaller and situated more forward than the others. It looked as though they had two legs, though their bottom half was mostly obscured by the canoe like boat they moved swiftly down the river within.
By the time Sarah saw them the alien in the front of the boat was pointing to her, and she knew there was no use in running. She wouldn’t get far, it felt like she was running on pure fumes and exhaustion would claim her if she exerted herself further.
There were three of the strange green being in the boat, and they steered to the shore near her and disembarked. She could not tell if they were men or women, the beings looked identical, with no hair, big black eyes and wide mouths almost like a frog's. They wore tan colored clothing, the chest covered but the bottoms almost like loincloths, short and without separate legs.
“What are you?’ the alien asked, and Sarah remembered the translator in her ear, and she was suddenly thankful that it had not been lost in the river.
“I crashed here!” Sarah said, holding her hands up. “I crashed here.”
The aliens stopped some feet away from her, and one pulled a sharp knife from its rope belt it wore around its waist. It held it out towards her, but did not advance.
“No understand!” one of the aliens said. Sarah cursed. They didn’t have translators like Gar did. They wouldn’t be able to understand her. She was worried the aliens would tire of her and kill her, so she used her hands, trying to make them understand.
“Up there,” she said, pointing to the sky. Then she made her fingers into a fist. “Ship,” she said, shaking her hand a bit, then she brought it down into her open palm. “Crash.”
She did it again, and then one more time. It seemed as though the aliens understood her. They blinked their eyes rapidly, and Sarah came to understand that it was their version of nodding. She thought again of how surprised she had been to see Gar smile and nod, to find out that she and the alien had something in common, something a surprising as that, that a whole different culture, a whole different species, could develop the same indication of humor and agreement.
Thinking about Gar made Sarah feel a sharp pain of worry in her chest. But she had her own problems, and all she could do was hope that he was alright, and that she would see him again.
“You come with us!” one of the creatures said, the one holding the knife, and Sarah didn’t see a way that she could refuse him, so she nodded as they stepped forward and took her by the arms.
They led her back to the little boat they had come in, and with her sitting in the middle pushed off back into the water and took her back the way she had just been walking, and away from the direction she needed to go to see Gar once more.
They float for some time, the aliens silent and watchful, their small heads twisting this way and that, the one with the knife having tucked it away and Sarah could almost reach up and take the weapon from him. It seemed as if he got the same idea, because as she watched, and while he was still rowing with his upper arms, one of this lower arms reached back and placed itself upon the hilt of the knife, so he would know right away if she grabbed it.
The river slowed and opened up much wider. The water was still at this section, and the woods had been cleared away, and Sarah could see a village.
The sight took her breath away. She had seen space ships, had even been on two, but seeing where these alien beings lived, it was almost too much. Here was their home! The buildings were made from wood with roofs of thatched grass and branches. Fires burned in great pits here and there, and as the small boat neared the town Sarah could see the aliens moving this way and that, from building to building. They all looked identical to the ones in the boat with her, and still Sarah saw no way to differentiate any of them between males or females.
The aliens rowed the boat towards a rickety wooden dock that jut out from the shore and tied it up there. The alien with the knife pulled it out and pointed it in Sarah’s direction. She stood, holding her arms out as the canoe swayed beneath her and stepped out onto the dock.
“Go!” one alien commanded, poking her in the leg, and on she went.
“Here,” the alien with a knife said, stepping swiftly around her and pointing towards a nearby hut. It was large, with a wooden door made of sticks bound together with rope which looked almost golden under the hot sun. “Wait,” the alien said, and then he used the butt of his knife to knock on the door three times. The door swung open, and Sarah nearly fainted at what she saw. She had to take three rapid steps back, and she could actually feel the color draining from her face. She felt suddenly sick, as though she had an upset stomach, and a wave of nausea went over her.
Standing in the doorway of the hut was a human man.
“How?” she asked, and the man laughed. He was older than her by at least a decade but handsome and strong looking. He had broad shoulders and blonde hair w
hich fell to them. His jaw was wide and strong, and his eyes the same color blue as the water behind her. His teeth were dazzling white and made Sarah feel self conscious of hers. When was the last time she had cleaned them? When was the last time she had cleaned any part of her body.
“I’m Adam,” the man said, coming forward and holding his hand out. “You’re among friends.”
Sarah took the man’s hand and they shook, and then when he was done she was unwilling to let go, so they simply stood there for a moment.
“How?” she asked again.
“I was abducted as a child,” the man said. “I was only ten. I ended up here, it really is a long story. You know, I’m as shocked as you are. I haven’t seen another human for twenty years.”
“I thought…” Sarah started.
“You were the first? No such luck,” he said, and then he turned to the aliens still standing around them and spoke to them in a strange clicking noise, but then Sarah’s ear piece translated it and she realized he had learned their language. “Leave us,” he told them, and they bowed their heads and left.
“You can speak to them?” she asked.
“Yes,” Alan said. “It took a long time. I hope they didn’t scare you.”
“I had this,” Sarah said, taking the translator from her ear and handing it to Adam, who finally extracted his hand from hers to take it.
“Interesting,” the other human said. “Where did you get this?”
“An alien,” she said, feeling instantly ashamed that she chose to describe Gar that way. Now that she was around another human it felt absolutely absurd to think that she had fallen in love with an alien, and had made love to two of them.
Adam handed her the earpiece back and she put it in once more. “I have some water and fruit,” he said, motioning back to his hut, and she nodded and followed him in.
The small building was sparsely furnished and just one room. A wooden bed with a lump mattress sat in the corner, and in the opposite a small fire pit made of stone and dug a foot into the ground. There was a table and here the two sat with Adam filling two stone cups with water from a nearby basin. “It’s a simply life,” he said with a smile and Sarah took her cup with a trembling hand.
“I can’t believe I’m talking to another human being,” she said after she had drank down half the cup of water. “I mean, for a while there I wasn’t sure I was ever going to see someone from Earth again.”
“Well, I’m glad you got to see me. This is a real treat,” Adam said.
“Please,” Sarah said. “Tell me how you got here.”
Adam laughed. “It really is a long story, are you sure?”
“Yes!” Sarah said. She had to know how a man had come to reside on the mysterious planet.
“Okay,” Adam said, laughing again. He was truly enjoying having another human to talk to, and Sarah found she had begun to smile and she was unable to keep it from her lips.
“I was ten. I lived in Kansas on my parents farm. I’m the youngest of three kids. Well, that I know of, mom and dad always wanted one more. They always said four was the perfect number. I was the only boy, I think they wanted another to even things out. Man, I lay awake at night and think about them a lot. My family. Anyways, I’m getting sidetracked. I was out in the field one night, I had forgotten to feed our dog and my daddy sent me out there. Father. I guess I’m too old to say daddy. Man, it's so weird to be speaking English, I’m a little surprised I still remember how to,” Adam said, and Sarah laughed.
“So I went out, and I’m feeding our big dumb dog, his name was Jake, he was huge, half the size of a horse, I could have ridden him around the yard. I feed him and I’m walking back in and I hear this hum and I look out over one of our fields and I see this dark shape there, no more than thirty or forty yards off of the ground. Really weird thing, reminded me of a plane but not quite, you know? It was long and sort of an oval. I don’t know, it just, as a kid, it attracted me to it. I thought aliens right away. Just as soon as I saw it. Oh aliens. A UFO. I wanted to get a closer look, so I made my way over to the field.
“The ship didn’t go anywhere as I got closer. I guess I was dumb. I should have turned and ran away and got my dad, but I just kept getting closer, until I was basically under the damned thing, and then it moved, right over me, and this bright light opened up and I couldn’t see anything because it was too bright but I felt myself lifting up. I dropped the dog food bag, and I don't think it came up with me. It’s probably all my parents ever found. Just that dog food sitting in the middle of our field. God, they probably think I’m dead.”
Sarah smiled sadly and reached out and placed her hand upon Adam’s. “You don’t have to tell me any more,” she said.
“No, I’ve never told anyone this. So I got up in the ship and there were all these… I mean aliens, you know, these things, around. They were furry, like brown and black and gray, fur everywhere but they wore clothes and they tried to speak to me but they couldn’t. They took me to their world, and I stayed there for a few years. We left then. I never was able to communicate with them, I just couldn’t figure it out, they spoke with their mouths and their hands, like I think if they said a word and moved their hand to the left it meant one thing, but the same word and a hand movement to the right meant something else. It was just too much for me. But they put me on a ship and they brought me here. These guys, the Taktari, they killed the furry guys that brought me, but they thought I was a god, and so I’ve lived here since then.”
“They think you’re God?” Sarah asked, her mouth dropping open. Adam laughed.
“Not the God, but a god. They have many gods, and they think I’m the god of the hunt. They think I came here to watch over them, to keep them safe when they venture out into the jungle to bring home game, and they treat me pretty well. Once a week they come and worship me and give me food and gold.”
“Gold?” Sarah asked.
Adam laughed against and stood up. He went to the corner where a large chest was lying and opened the lid. Reaching the extracted a few hunks of shimmering gold. “I mean, I don’t know if it’s the same stuff we have on Earth, but it sure looks like it, right?”
Sarah grinned. “I know my gold. That’s gold,” she said. “My father is a geologist.”
“Strange that it can exist on a whole other world, right? And that it’s valued here too.”
“Yeah,” Sarah agreed as Adam refilled their water cups.
“Okay,” he said when he sat back down. “Spill it. Your turn. How did you end up here? How long have you been in outer space among the creatures from another world?”
Sarah grinned. “No where near as long as you,” she said. “I think it’s been a week. Less. God, I don’t even know.”
“Space can do that you,” Adam said, nodding his head sagely.
“I was going to visit someone, someone I hadn’t seen in awhile. Um, my father gave me this,” Sarah said, pulling the crystal from inside her shirt. “It began to glow and to hum and as I was driving a ship appeared above me. I got out of my car and they sucked me right up.”
Adam was listening intently. Sarah took a sip of water, steeling herself for the next part of her story.
“I thought the aliens which took me we're good. They said they needed my help, they needed my necklace. I… got to know one of them. We became close. We spent days talking. He told me of his life, it hadn’t turned out how he wanted. I shared things with him. But then we were attacked, and these other aliens took me. I was only there for… not even a day. Hours maybe, when they were attacked. They told me that the first aliens were bad. They could use their minds to influence you. The alien I had gotten to know wasn’t a… friend after all.”
“Oh my,” Adam said, concern in his eye, along with something else. Sarah found herself wondering just how much of the story that she was leaving out the man was guessing.
“So we had to escape, me and a friend, one of the new aliens, and we crashed here. They came looking for us. I nee
d to find him. Gar his name is. I need to find him and leave here. As long as I have this the bad guys won’t stop looking for me,” she said, holding the necklace up before tucking it back into her shirt.
“Well, I can help you. We can look for your friend.”
“Thank you,” Sarah said. “We got separated.”
“We’ll get him here,” Adam said. “But first, rest. I can send my friends out now, but you should rest. You can get cleaned up. Let me show you.”
Sarah felt as though she couldn’t possibly get cleaned up and rest, not when she didn’t know where Gar was, but she followed Adam all the same. All of the tiny four armed aliens watched them as they passed, and when they paused outside of another hut Sarah asked Adam a question which had just come to her.
“They think you’re a god but they held me at knife point,” Sarah said.
“You’re a woman,” Adam said simply. These creatures, they don’t have sexes. They’re masculine, and that’s it.
“How do they reproduce?” Sarah asked.
“Plants,” Adam said, and then he grinned. “The males here, well, I mean, they aren’t males, they just are. They can fertilize these large plants you may have seen. We have a field of them nearby. They grow from the fertilized flowers.”
“You’re kidding,” Sarah said.
Adam laughed. “Look, I have a fourth grade education, alright? You surely know more about reproduction than I do.”
And he said that with a strange sound in his voice, and Sarah caught his eyes as they looked her up and down, and she found herself feeling sorry for the man. He let her into the hut, which was empty but furnished much like hers. He helped her light a fire and heat water over it, and then he filled a large tub in the corner with the water.
“Bathe,” he said. “I’ll bring you food in a bit.”
“Thank you,” Sarah said, and before he could go she stepped quickly to him and wrapped him in a large hug.He smiled against her neck and returned it, and when they stepped apart his face was red.
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