by Maia Starr
“What are you doing in here?” I blabbed. Tact wasn’t my strong suit.
“I am greeting you into the new day. It is the first time you have awakened on a new planet. It is a happy occasion. I brought you a meal to commemorate it.”
I pushed myself up into a sitting position and squinted at Laike. Although I felt well-rested, my head was aching. Zod had really done a number on me. I shouldn’t have been so abrasive to Laike, not if he could repeat the damage done to me by Zod. They were both unbelievably well-muscled. There would be nothing stopping Laike if he set his mind to harming me.
“I see,” I said, trying my best to rein in my temper. If I did or said the wrong thing, it could mean a world of trouble for me. It would be best not to rock the boat. At least until I found a way out of this house.
“This is a specialty my grandmother made for me. She told me it would be a special dish for bonding. I was never able to eat it with anybody but her, before. I haven’t been officially mated with anybody yet.”
He said this with a large, shy smile that almost endeared him to me. Almost. What was up with this guy?
“Thank you,” I said reluctantly, looking down at the tray of food he had sitting on the bed near my feet. The smell was surprisingly pleasant, and my stomach rumbled. I felt agitated at my body for betraying me, and not for the first time since I’d met Laike, either. I didn’t want any part of this bizarre charade. I just wanted to go home.
“To my Earth woman!” Laike said, grinning obliviously and holding a glass of bubbling liquid in the air.
I cringed and lifted the glass intended for me, bringing it to my lips. The taste was pleasant, but my stomach was in knots. I had finally gotten some rest after everything that happened, and it seemed clear to me that Zod had severely hurt my head. But it would do no good to tell that to Laike. It was better never to reveal your weaknesses.
“How did you sleep?” Laike asked me.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. It had been deep and rejuvenating, yes, but it wasn’t my bed at home. I wasn’t sure I would ever sleep well again.
“I know it can be strange to wake up in a new place,” Laike said. “After my grandmother passed into the arms of the Plains goddess, I was taken to the academy and woke up in a dormitory with a hundred other Thressl’n boys.”
I frowned. They had just taken a grieving boy in the middle of the night and deposited him in a dormitory? That might explain why he would abduct a woman and hold her hostage.
“It was terrifying at first. Nobody would explain to me what had happened. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t go home. Luckily the Plains goddess and my grandmother appeared in a dream and consoled me. It was my fate to end up there. I learned a lot.”
Laike trailed off, and I couldn’t help but wonder where his mind had gone. What kinds of experiences had shaped him into the man he was now and creased his handsome brow that way? Who had damaged him so much that he didn’t think twice of tying a woman up in a food cellar?
“That must have been hard,” I said carefully. I didn’t want to show too much sympathy, in case it encouraged an inappropriate relationship with my captor, but I was truly sorry to hear his story. Compassion never hurt anybody. Did it?
“It was meant to be,” Laike said cheerfully, all traces of his dark past gone from his face. His blue eyes shocked me with their intensity. I could tell there was a lot more to him than he was letting on. Not just to me, but to himself. Maybe to everybody. I had a sense for intelligence, and Laike was brimming with it. But he hid behind a goofy, oblivious façade. Why was that?
“Try the Glershob,” he said, pushing one of the plates on the tray toward me. “I made it as a way to welcome you to Jenal’k. I’m sure you don’t plan to stay here long, though.”
I frowned. Was he mocking me? But there was no trace of humor on his face, and I hesitantly took a bite.
“This reminds me of something,” I murmured. The explosion of flavor was overwhelming. It had a slight hint of coconut, but there were more savory flavors that drowned it out. It was incredibly delicious, and I chewed thoughtfully. It was a lot like the last meal I had shared with my father before he had taken off, leaving me a ward of the state.
“Togetherness is a hard memory,” Laike said as if he could read my thoughts. How would he have known though? Perhaps he was just thinking of his grandmother.
Laike rose from the bed and smiled. “I have to go to work now. Please stay in the house. It is for your own safety.”
“Work?”
“Yes. I perform maintenance on the ships,” Laike said.
So he was a handyman. That must have been how he had found me in my unfortunate circumstances. Lucky me.
“I have been alone for a long time,” he continued. “I am very glad that we are together now.”
Laike’s handsome face lit up with a smile, and again, I felt the unwelcome creep of desire heating my body. I looked away quickly, and by the time I was ready to face him again, he was gone.
Chapter 4
Laike Ostra’ki (Repair and Maintenance)
I left Emily’s room feeling a little bit perplexed. She was a complex creature, and I couldn’t remember if humans were supposed to have purple splotches on their faces or if it was a sign of injury.
The Thressl’n were so densely muscled that we didn’t bruise when we were injured. In fact, we hardly bled. Our bodies were highly functional machines built for war and hard labor. But I had almost forgotten that human bodies were highly water-based and far less muscular. There was a lot to learn about caring for an Earth female.
Woman, she had said.
What must she be thinking? At first, it seemed as if it was going well, but she had been very angry before retiring. I could remember the fury in my own breast after being relocated to the boys’ academy after my grandmother’s passing. It was probably normal for anybody who had been relocated against their will.
“Laike, where the hell were you?” Absle exclaimed the second I walked into the main office to clock in. “I saved a seat for you and everything.”
I had completely forgotten about the celebration. Again. I nearly blabbed the truth about the human female to Absle; it was so natural to tell him everything that could possibly cross my mind. Luckily I was able to stop the words in time.
“I got caught up in a project,” I said dismissively. It was a partial truth, and one that he was used to hearing at this point in our relationship.
“You and your tinkering. You know you’ll never get anything out of it, right? What’s the point? You should just focus on your real job.”
“There’s nothing wrong with branching out,” I said defensively.
“There is when it affects your social life! I hardly ever see you anymore!”
“Why do I always have to be the one to come to the deserts of Armath? You could just as easily visit me at Mount Zennith,” I pointed out.
“You know I hate it there,” Absle said. “What would the point of that be?”
“Well you know I hate the red desert, and I’m not comfortable socializing.”
“That’s just because you’re an egg-head. It’s hard to relate to people.”
“It’s hard to have people tell you who you are and how to live, and not to do what you love doing,” I retorted, frowning at Absle. He had always tried to encourage me to be more practical. I usually took it as a sign that he cared enough to try to protect me from the unfair stigma of our people. But lately, it seemed more like he was impatient with my nonconformity.
“Whatever you say, Laike,” he said, glancing at the clock. “I have things to do today. We will catch up later.”
I watched Absle disappear down the hall and sighed heavily. Why was it so hard to maintain relationships? I always seemed to do something wrong. Why couldn’t things just be easier?
Before long, I was immersed in my work and thoughts of Absle were long gone. Some of the pilots had been complaining about a consistent malfunction on the
ship, and it took all the focus I could muster to pinpoint the problem. During battle, retroblasters were firing too soon or too late, which could potentially cause us to be fined by the Federation of Natural Preservation if we missed our targets and hit an ancient meteor or other such landmark.
“Ostra’ki!”
I jumped at the sound of my name, smacking my forehead hard on the metallic surface of the machine I was working on.
I heard a snigger, and my blood ran cold. It was Captain Zod.
“Yes, sir?” I asked, scrambling from beneath the machine. Zod stared hard at me before speaking.
“Are you the man responsible for cleaning the ships?”
“One of many, sir,” I said, though it burned me up to say so. I was the man responsible for designing the ships. Building the ships. Maintaining the ships. But because of the bizarre loyalty Thressl’n felt toward law, order, and fate, I was not given any credit for this little nuance.
“I’ve been asking around to see if anybody might have seen something that went missing from my quarters.”
“M-missing?” I stammered. The beautiful Earth woman’s face flashed in my head; the soft curls of her hair as they grazed my arm the night before nearly making me faint with a combination of fear and longing.
“Yes,” Zod said vaguely, and grew quiet for a moment as if searching for a way to ask me if I had seen his illegal cargo without actually asking if I had seen it.
“I cleaned the hallways and your quarters, sir. I found the strangest thing,” I said, my mind racing faster than my mouth could keep up with.
“Oh?” Zod asked, his ears perking up. “What was that?”
“This,” I said, digging into my pockets and pulling out a metal cylinder. It was about the length of a finger, and Zod stared at it, his face growing taut with frustration.
“What the gods is that?” he growled, snatching it from my hand.
“It goes in the motor of the ship. Did you experience any trouble during your flight?”
It was unusual for a man of my rank to ask Zod such a question, but given the circumstances, I was able to get away with it.
“Nothing I couldn’t handle. Was there anything else?”
“Oh, just the usual,” I said carefully. The usual often meant body bags full of casualties. Zod had a perverse tendency to mutilate the corpses of his enemies after he had killed them. He didn’t think we knew about it, but after so many trips to Kelron and the crematorium, I had gotten quite a glimpse at this man’s instability.
“I see,” he said. Zod looked angry, but seemed resigned. “That will be all.”
He said it as if dismissing me, but turned his back and let himself out of the repair docks.
My eyes watched Zod until he disappeared, and only then did I let out the huge breath I had been holding since he arrived. He would surely find out sooner or later that I had been responsible for removing his prized bundle. Hopefully, I would find a way to keep that from happening, or both I and the beautiful Earth woman would be doomed.
***
“I am back,” I said. It was strangely nice to have someone to say that to after I arrived home from a long shift at a job I was too good for. The silence that met me was disturbing, however, and I frowned, listening carefully. The Thressl’n had exceptional hearing, but try as I might, I could not get a sense of the Earth woman anywhere in the house.
“Emily?” I asked, stepping uncertainly to the bedroom.
If she escaped, she would be taken back to the camps, and Zod would find her for sure. Then she would undoubtedly tell him all about how I had brought her to my home. I could say goodbye to any future I might possibly have if that was the case. I had to find her.
“Answer me, woman!” I pleaded, my chest constricting tightly. Why hadn’t I been more careful? I hadn’t wanted to lock her in the cellar again, but what good was it to lock her in a room where she might easily escape?
I quickly typed in the sequence to release the door, fearing the worst.
“Emily?”
I stepped inside, shocked to find that Emily was crumpled on the floor. I called her name again, but she was unresponsive. What was I going to do? There was nobody I could trust to help me, and I had no medical experience of my own.
I laid my head gently on her chest, hoping to hear her hearts beating. I panicked when I only registered one faint heartbeat. The only person I knew who had any type of medical knowledge at all was Kelron. He had discovered this passion during his training at the crematorium; it had begun with anatomy, and he had studied it independently on his own time. But would I be able to trust him?
It seemed I had no choice.
“Don’t worry,” I told Emily, lifting her gently from the floor and laying her in the bed. I stroked her face, shocked by how soft and smooth her pale skin was under my hand. She was a pleasure to touch. “I’m going to bring help.”
I ran outside to my hovercraft and sped to the crematorium as quickly as I could, completely ignoring all traffic laws. It didn’t matter as much in the mountains anyway, as the heaviest traffic was always in the red desert.
By the time I reached the crematorium, I was in full panic mode. There was no way of knowing if I could trust Kelron. And absolutely no way of knowing that everything would turn out okay. I could be killed once this Earth female was found unauthorized in my home. But that didn’t matter to me at all. All that mattered was saving her.
“Kelron!” I shouted before I even managed to make it all the way out of the hovercraft. “I need help!”
“What? Who is that?”
Kelron walked far too slowly to the door to greet me.
“Please, hurry. Do you know anything about human anatomy?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“Then come!”
Kelron must have sensed the urgency in my voice because he quit speaking and rushed to the hovercraft with me. Perhaps he assumed there as an emergency in the camps. We sped back toward my home, and I racked my brain hoping to find a way to explain. But it wouldn’t be safe to do so. Not until he saw the situation for himself and I had no other choice. Otherwise, he might refuse to see her at all.
“This way,” I said.
He looked bewildered when we pulled into my own home. It must have been strange to discover that there was an emergency with an Earth female in my home. But he didn’t ask questions and followed me silently into the room where I had left Emily.
“What the gods is this, Laike?” he asked finally, his voice higher than usual.
“I found this woman in Zod’s quarters,” I whispered. “She is not one of the abducted accounted for in the camps. I fear he took her secretly for abusive purposes.”
“Laike, do you know how much danger you’re going to be in if Zod finds out about this? You took away one of his toys! He isn’t the forgiving type!”
I pursed my lips grimly. The thought had occurred several times, but the risk paled in comparison to Emily’s life.
“It doesn’t matter what happens to me. Please, just help her.”
Kelron sighed heavily and approached the bed with caution. It occurred suddenly to me that he had never seen a human up close before, and I hoped more than anything that he would be able to help her.
Compassion creased Kelron’s face as he gazed down at the Earth woman on the bed.
“She is pretty,” he said quietly, moving forward to listen to her heart beats.
“She has only one!” I interjected.
Kelron laughed softly.
“That’s because Earthlings have only one heart,” he said. “But hers is strong. Don’t worry.”
I felt like bursting as Kelron slowly examined her.
“It looks like Zod did a number on her. Did you see her face? Those are injuries. Her skin tone should be like this, everywhere.” He lifted the woman’s elbow and pointed to the soft, pale skin of her arm.
“Human brains are highly sensitive. Either it is bleeding, or it is swelling. Neither are very go
od.”
“Are there any remedies?” I asked, panicked by Kelron’s words. I couldn’t let this woman die at the hands of Zod. Especially not in my home. She was mine now.
“Only a few that I know of,” Kelron said. “And they have never been used on humans.”
I frowned. “Do you think they would work?”
“Well, Zerk’k Arkti chose humans for breeding because of their biological similarities. It could be worth a shot.”
“Well, what are they? How would I get them?”
“You leave that to me,” Kelron said. “For now, just make sure she doesn’t move too much. Do you mind if I take your hovercraft?”
“Of course not,” I said, slinking numbly to the floor beside her bed. I hoped that I could trust Kelron to bring the remedies. If not, both I and the Earth female were doomed.
***
“Laike?”
I was startled out of my dark thoughts by the gentle voice of the human.
“Emily, are you all right?”
“I feel fine,” she said, attempting to push herself into a sitting position.
“No!” I barked. “Lie still.”
Her face, if possible, grew even paler, and she became still.
“We are waiting for help.”
“I don’t need help,” Emily sighed. “I just need to go home.”
“Don’t tell me what you need,” I said darkly. “That is up to me to decide now.”
All the worrying had made me feel surly, and I wasn’t about to let her ruin her chances of recovery.
We were both brooding silently until finally, the sound of the hovercraft outside made my hearts constrict. If Kelron was alone, then everything was going to be all right. But if he had gone to seek help from the authorities, then I was going to lose everything. Even, probably, my life.
I held my breath until Kelron’s footfalls paused outside of my doorway. I dared to look up finally, and nearly cried out in happiness and relief. He was alone, holding two small bottles.
“These serums are for the brain,” Kelron said, walking to me and offering them. I took them curiously, stumbling over my words.